Pressure on strategic business: what is behind the cases against Roman Mileshko's airline group
Kyiv • UNN
The SBU is investigating a case against Roman Mileshko's airline group for alleged complicity with Russia, although no specific facts of the crime have been established during several years of investigation. Several other similar proceedings, which were investigated by other law enforcement agencies based on applications from an NGO associated with a competing company, were closed, which indicates the custom nature of the persecutions.
The Security Service of Ukraine is investigating criminal proceedings, opened by the National Police at the end of 2022, regarding a group of aviation companies associated with businessman Roman Mileshko. Formally, it concerns alleged complicity with the aggressor state and misappropriation of property. However, it is still unclear what exactly constituted complicity with the aggressor state, as well as what property the group of companies allegedly misappropriated. Everything points to a custom-ordered case, designed to clear the market for competitors, writes UNN.
How the case emerged and why it was handed over to the SBU
Criminal proceedings No. 12022000000001276 against the businessman and his companies were registered on November 25, 2022, by the Main Investigative Department of the National Police based on a statement by the head of the NGO "Council of ATO Veterans" Pavlo Moshkovskyi. This public organization is associated with Mileshko's biggest competitor in the aviation market - the company "Ukrainian Helicopters."
In his statement to the police, Moshkovskyi presented a theory of a "Russian conspiracy." According to him, a Russian citizen, aviation specialist Viktor Mileshko, who is the father of Ukrainian citizen and businessman Roman Mileshko, developed a plan in 2022 to weaken Ukraine's economic security by seizing key enterprises in the aviation industry, and his son in Kyiv involved his Ukrainian companies and managers in the implementation of this plan. The statement even mentioned an alleged attempt to seize the state enterprise "Antonov" and PJSC "Ukrainian Helicopters" in the interests of the aggressor country.
It was on this statement that the plot of the criminal proceedings was built. In addition to the enterprises that became part of Roman Mileshko's "Constanta" group of companies, the case also involves firms in the UAE, through which, according to the investigation, the scheme for financing the Russian Federation and blocking the work of Ukrainian competitors was organized.
However, after almost 4 years of investigation, no facts have been established that would confirm the statement of the head of the NGO "Council of ATO Veterans." Moreover, the course of events itself refutes any so-called accusations by Moshkovskyi.
As Roman Mileshko himself told UNN, his father had serious health problems for a long time and died in 2022. Therefore, he physically could not do what Moshkovskyi attributed to him in his statement.
For a long time, starting from 2014, my father had significant health problems and physically could not do anything that is attributed to him in this case. In 2022, my father passed away. Therefore, all accusations are simply absurd
Despite the fact that the Criminal Procedure Code assigns crimes under Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code (complicity with the aggressor state) to the jurisdiction of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Investigative Department of the National Police investigated the proceedings until 2025.
During the investigation, the businessman was even interrogated, and after the investigators learned about the death of Mileshko Sr. back in 2022, they obviously realized the futility of the investigation. Instead of closing the proceedings immediately, they "shoved" it to the SBU.
The "Russian trace" in the UAE, which does not exist
The investigation also operates on the thesis that companies associated with Mileshko cooperate with enterprises from the UAE, which are allegedly controlled by residents of the Russian Federation. However, this information, according to representatives of the businessman's group of companies, is not true.
Vadym Vdovenko, General Director of PJSC "Airline Constanta," emphasized that all foreign counterparties underwent strict compliance checks by international structures and banks. According to him, there are all documents confirming that there have never been any residents of the Russian Federation.
Every company that Roman Mileshko cooperates with has been checked by banks in the EU, UAE, and Ukraine. The group of companies is directly contracted with the UN, WFP (World Food Programme - ed.), and the governments of many EU countries. The compliance of these international and national structures is one of the highest in the world, and to talk about financing the aggressor state is, to put it mildly, absurd
In addition, according to him, during the operation of the group of companies, the financial monitoring of no state bank recorded suspicious transactions that could indicate financing of the Russian Federation or other risks.
Searches, arrests of accounts and equipment: how the companies' operations were blocked
In parallel with the construction of the "Russian conspiracy" theory, investigators initiated forceful pressure on the group of companies.
On March 28, 2023, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv authorized large-scale searches in the offices of companies associated with Roman Mileshko, as well as at the residences of the businessman and top managers. During the investigative actions, documents, information carriers, servers, and equipment were seized.
The very next day, March 29, 2023, the court granted permission for temporary access to bank documents, and two months later, on May 22, 2023, by a ruling, it seized funds in the accounts of the companies "Constanta," "NZOperations," and Xena. This effectively paralyzed their normal economic activity, as they were fulfilling contracts for the Ukrainian military and international humanitarian missions. Some international contracts were disrupted, which negatively affected the inflow of investments into Ukraine.
After the interrogation of the chief accountant of the group of companies in 2024, all investigative actions virtually stopped. However, the seized equipment and documentation have not yet been returned to their owners.
The group of companies emphasizes: the arrest was imposed despite the absence of any remarks from the financial monitoring of state banks. In their opinion, the law enforcement officers were thus fulfilling an order to pressure the business, legitimizing everything with a statement from the NGO "Council of ATO Veterans" controlled by "Ukrainian Helicopters."
Other proceedings based on the same statements have already been closed
Criminal proceedings No. 12022000000001276 is not the only attempt to pressure Roman Mileshko's group of companies.
In 2023, the SBU already investigated criminal case No. 22023000000000628. It was also opened based on a statement from the same NGO "Council of ATO Veterans," and the "conspiracy theory" voiced there was the same. As a result of a thorough check, investigators found no violations and did not notify anyone of suspicion. However, as in the first case, documents and equipment were seized to paralyze the companies' operations.
A similar situation occurred at the State Bureau of Investigation. Case No. 62023000000000305, opened on similar charges, also ended without establishing the elements of a crime.
As UNN previously reported, the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense officially confirmed the absence of grounds for including Roman Mileshko and his associated companies in the sanctions lists due to alleged cooperation with companies linked to Russia. In fact, the same plot – about "Russian money," "undermining defense capabilities," and "seizing strategic enterprises" – has been repeatedly checked by various bodies and each time fell apart.
Former First Deputy Director of the State Bureau of Investigation Oleksandr Babikov, in a comment to UNN, noted that the described situation is very similar to a typical scheme of custom-ordered persecution of business.
When they want to order a competitor and, let's say, eliminate him, create additional problems for him so that he is not so competitive, such statements are deliberately sent to various law enforcement agencies to create problems for this enterprise
Babikov explained that if one of the law enforcement agencies closes proceedings, this should logically be a reason to close all other cases with an identical plot.
Strategic aviation enterprises under attack: who benefits from this
Against this background, the key question remains: who benefits from the years-long persecution of a group of companies that have repeatedly passed international compliance checks and work, among other things, in international humanitarian missions.
PJSC "Airline Constanta" and LLC "NZOperations" are contractors for key military departments of Ukraine, performing tasks in the field of aviation and logistics, including in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies. For example, in March-April 2022, pilots of "NZOperations" together with the National Guard under the leadership of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense carried out evacuation flights from "Azovstal" in Mariupol. Unfortunately, some of the crews from these special missions did not return.
In addition, representatives of the group of companies, including management, have been serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the first days of the full-scale invasion.
Against this background, accusations of "complicity with the aggressor state" appear not only detached from reality but also dangerous from the perspective of national security. After all, blocking the activities of strategically important aviation companies through dubious and obviously custom-ordered proceedings benefits not Ukraine, but precisely the aggressor state.