Vice Prime Minister for Reconstruction Oleksiy Kuleba submitted Ihor Zelinskyi's candidacy for the position of head of the State Aviation Service to the Cabinet of Ministers. However, this official's many years of activity in the State Aviation Service contain such serious signs of a threat not only to aviation safety but also to Ukraine's national interests as a whole that his appointment could turn into a strategic mistake for the state with consequences that will no longer be possible to correct, writes UNN.
First fired, now lobbying for promotion
As UNN learned from its own sources in the Government, Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba is actively lobbying for the appointment of Ihor Zelinskyi as the head of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine. He has already sent the relevant submission for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers.
The situation looks at least strange, because in February 2025, Kuleba did not extend Ihor Zelinskyi's contract and dismissed him from the position of deputy head of the State Aviation Service. Zelinskyi was the "right hand" of the then head of the State Aviation Service, Oleksandr Bilchuk.
That is, an official who was toxic enough yesterday to be "removed" from office is today, for some reason, considered a person who can be entrusted with an organ critical for defense and aviation safety. And this is against the background of the fact that Kuleba himself was under threat of resignation after a corruption scandal related to the operation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine "Midas" regarding alleged corruption schemes in the energy sector organized by Timur Mindich.
A draft resolution on his dismissal from the post of Vice Prime Minister for Reconstruction of Ukraine - Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine has already been registered in the Verkhovna Rada due to the discovery of facts indicating systemic corruption in the activities of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, as well as improper organization of work on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The explanatory note to the draft resolution states that from May 21, 2022, to January 24, 2023, he worked as the head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, while journalists and pre-trial investigation bodies repeatedly exposed corrupt actions in reconstruction in this region. In particular, law enforcement officers investigated cases where officials were accused of overpricing materials and misappropriating budget funds through document manipulation. These corruption schemes concerned both housing reconstruction and other infrastructure facilities.
Therefore, it is possible that Zelinskyi's promotion to the position of head of the State Aviation Service is Kuleba's attempt to "secure" his people in key positions in order to maintain influence even after a possible resignation.
Bilchuk's legacy: offshore companies, Rostec, and a blow to defense capability
The context in which Ihor Zelinskyi worked is also telling.
The government dismissed Bilchuk from his post after he transferred the maintenance of repair documentation for Mi-8MT (MTV) helicopters to AAL Group Ltd, a company with direct ties to the Russian military-industrial complex, in early August 2025. This decision jeopardized the operation of this type of helicopter by all components of Ukraine's security and defense sector.
It later turned out that AAL Group Ltd, registered in the offshore jurisdiction of the UAE, has direct ties to the Russian military-industrial complex. And as reported by Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, the ultimate beneficiaries of AAL Group Ltd are the company "Russian Helicopters" from the state concern "Rostec."
Bilchuk's decision was made despite the fact that the US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) had already recognized AAL Group Ltd as unsuitable for cooperation in 2024.
As the "right hand" of the head of the State Aviation Service, Zelinskyi could not have failed to see what was happening in the department and what decisions were harming the state's interests. Moreover, the official himself signed a number of papers that openly and systematically destroyed the aviation industry in Ukraine.
Destruction of Ukrainian transport aviation
Aviation industry experts note that from 2020 to 2025, when Zelinskyi worked as deputy head of the State Aviation Service, there was a consistent and systematic destruction of transport aviation in Ukraine.
For example, as of 2016, there were more than 20 Il-76 aircraft in the State Register of Civil Aircraft of Ukraine. But by early 2025, only two remained, and even those are not airworthy. Telling, isn't it?
This situation, according to aviation market players, arose because the leadership of the State Aviation Service, in particular Bilchuk and his deputy Zelinskyi, made a number of decisions that created artificial obstacles to the operation of Il-76 aircraft. In particular, more than 20 of these transport aircraft were excluded from the Ukrainian register and came under Russian control, so Ukraine lost a significant part of its transport fleet in wartime conditions.
Violation of sanctions legislation and playing into the hands of the Russian Federation
The exclusion of transport aircraft from state registers and their transfer to the control of the aggressor country is not the only problem created by the Bilchuk-Zelinskyi team.
While serving as deputy head of the State Aviation Service, Ihor Zelinskyi apparently committed a number of violations of sanctions legislation.
After the war began in 2014, Ukraine imposed sanctions against the Russian developer of transport aircraft - PJSC "Il". Despite this, the leadership of the State Aviation Service decided to issue airworthiness review certificates for 18 Ukrainian-registered Il-76 aircraft based on relevant decisions of the Russian PJSC "Il".
And the violations did not end there. After all, during the full-scale invasion, Ihor Zelinskyi, as deputy head of the department, signed a number of such certificates. In practice, this means that the State Aviation Service of Ukraine acted in the interests of Russia, which unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine, because such decisions allowed the aggressor country to receive tens of millions of dollars from the operation of Ukrainian aircraft.
It should be noted that in this way the leadership of the State Aviation Service also ignored the fact that there is a certified organization in Ukraine that has the right to provide documentary support for the operation of Il-76 transport aircraft. The department under the leadership of Bilchuk and Zelinskyi actually put Ukrainian operators before a choice - either cooperate with the Russian developer or refuse to use the Il-76.
Obviously, such actions by Oleksandr Bilchuk and Ihor Zelinskyi in leadership positions in the State Aviation Service should have interested law enforcement agencies, especially the Security Service of Ukraine, which investigates crimes related to aiding the aggressor country and financing terrorism.
If Bilchuk has already been dismissed for obvious complicity in the interests of the Russian Federation, then the appointment of his "right hand" looks not just cynical, it is a continuation of the same illegal activity, only under a new name.
In wartime conditions, a person whose actions were aimed at the consistent destruction of aviation, playing into Russian interests, and harming national security cannot be allowed to head the aviation regulator.