Open competition for leadership positions as a disaster prevention measure: why the appointment of the head of the State Aviation Service without public selection is unacceptable

The issue of appointing a new head of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine is increasingly turning into a matter of systemic public administration. After all, it raised the question of whether a strategically important regulator in the field of aviation safety can be headed by a person appointed without an open competition, lobbied in manual mode, writes UNN.

Against the backdrop of a full-scale war, when the aviation industry is directly related to defense capabilities, international cooperation, and sanctions policy, any personnel decision in this area must be as balanced, transparent, and professional as possible. That is why the requirement of an open competition for the election of the head of the State Aviation Service is not a formality, but a matter of national security.

Currently, the government is considering the possibility of appointing Ihor Zelinsky, a former deputy head of this body, as the head of the State Aviation Service. His candidacy was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers at the end of 2025 by Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

Who is Ihor Zelinsky?

Zelinsky worked as Deputy Head of the State Aviation Service since 2020, but in February 2025, Oleksiy Kuleba dismissed him.

As UNN previously reported, representatives of the Ukrainian aviation market characterize Zelinsky's period of work as deputy head of the State Aviation Service (2020-2025) as a time of systemic and purposeful destruction of transport aviation. If in 2016 there were more than 20 Il-76 aircraft in the state register, then by the beginning of 2025 there were only two left, and even those are not airworthy.

Experts point out that it was precisely by the decisions of the previous leadership of the State Aviation Service (the head of the regulator Oleksandr Bilchuk and his deputy Ihor Zelinsky) that these aircraft were excluded from the Ukrainian register and actually came under the control of Russia. During this period, regulatory decisions were also made aimed at creating artificial obstacles to the operation of Il-76 in Ukraine, which is obviously an undermining of the state's defense capabilities.

In addition, since the 1990s, it was possible to operate Il-76MD aircraft without additional paperwork for their re-registration between various departments, including the Ministry of Defense. in June 2023, when Zelinsky was acting head of the State Aviation Service, after appeals from aviation market representatives and the Ministry of Defense, he officially confirmed the absence of obstacles to the use of transport aircraft in the interests of Ukraine.

However, six months later, in December, he changed his mind, stating that Il-76MDs do not have civil type certificates and cannot be registered. As a result, the use of aircraft for military, humanitarian, and evacuation missions was blocked. In addition, this decision led to the downtime of the aircraft and additional budget expenditures for their maintenance, which is material damage to the state.

It should be noted that after the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's invasion of Donbas, Ukraine imposed sanctions against the Russian developer of Il-76 aircraft, PJSC "Il". That is, any cooperation with this Russian enterprise is prohibited.

Despite this, Zelinsky issued dozens of airworthiness review certificates for aircraft based on the decision of the sanctioned PJSC "Il" from June 2022. In fact, in this way he legalized the use of documents of the aggressor country's enterprise, which, according to experts, could have brought the Russian side tens of millions of dollars in income.

In addition, Zelinsky ignored the fact that there is a certified organization in Ukraine capable of providing appropriate support for Il-76 aircraft of PJSC "Il" without involving Russian sanctioned companies that are part of the aggressor country's military-industrial complex.

As aviation market representatives explained to UNN, Zelinsky's decision put Il-75 aircraft operators before a choice: either cooperate with the Russian sanctioned developer, or refuse to use the aircraft.

Zelinsky was the "right hand" of the head of the regulator Oleksandr Bilchuk in the State Aviation Service. In the autumn of 2025, the Government dismissed Bilchuk due to the decision to transfer the support of repair documentation for Mi-8MT(MTV) helicopters to AAL Group Ltd. The official ignored the presence of certified enterprises in Ukraine capable of performing these functions since 2014, after the start of Russia's war against Ukraine. His choice fell on an offshore structure that is connected with the Russian military-industrial complex. The ultimate beneficiary of AAL Group Ltd is the company "Russian Helicopters", which is part of the Russian state concern "Rostec".

It should be noted that back in 2024, the US Transportation Command USTRANSCOM recognized AAL Group Ltd as unsuitable for cooperation, obviously due to the company's connection with the Russian Federation.

So, obviously, cooperation with companies connected with Russia was the norm for the State Aviation Service during the Bilchuk-Zelinsky era.

Experts interviewed by UNN note that such actions by Zelinsky could have caused significant damage to our state's defense capabilities and could be qualified as complicity with the aggressor state.

Systemic problem of loyalty-based appointments

Political scientist Volodymyr Tsybulko points out that the practice of appointing leaders without competitions leads to the degradation of state institutions. According to him, the quality of managers appointed manually is extremely low, and the consequences of their activities are destructive for the functioning of government bodies.

"In fact, the quality of officials appointed outside of competitions is very low, and this simply leads to catastrophic consequences," he said in a comment to UNN.

The key problem, according to the expert, is that people are selected not by competence, but by the factor of personal loyalty, which inevitably leads to failures in the work of government bodies:

"That is, we have not only unqualified people in positions who are appointed only by the factor of loyalty to the 'leader', but in fact a failure of all functional activities of certain leaders due to unqualified people," Tsybulko emphasized.

It should be noted that in the case of the State Aviation Service, these "failures" can have much more serious consequences for the state. After all, it is not just a regulator.

The State Aviation Service is responsible for the certification of aviation equipment and enterprises, including aircraft manufacturers, which perform defense orders. In addition, the regulator controls the admission of companies to the aviation market, is responsible for flight safety, etc. In post-war recovery, aviation can become one of the key drivers of economic development.

The political scientist reminded that open competitions for state positions can be held now by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers.

"By the way, competitions are applied. Sometimes. That is, in different ways. Sometimes they are applied. The Cabinet of Ministers can introduce an obligation for everyone by its resolution," Tsybulko noted.

Recall

The Security Service of Ukraine is conducting a special check of the candidate for the position of head of the State Aviation Service Ihor Zelinsky, during which it will take into account the possible damage to the state from such an appointment.