President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed former Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius as CEO of Ukroboronprom, a group of state-owned defense companies entangled in a corruption scandal.
The decree appointing Abromavicius was published on the president’s official website on Aug. 30.
In February, investigative journalists revealed that the son of Oleh Hladkovskyi, then the deputy head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and a close associate of former President Petro Poroshenko, was involved in a scheme to smuggle parts for military equipment from Russia and sell them to Ukroboronprom at inflated prices. The news sparked outrage in Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since 2014, and delivered a serious blow to Poroshenko’s reputation before the presidential election.
Abromavicius will replace Pavlo Bukin, whom Poroshenko appointed to head Ukroboronprom in February 2018.
Abromavicius has been a member of Ukroboronprom’s supervisory board since June 12. At the time, the official told the Kyiv Post that the group of defense companies had huge potential, but was drowning in corruption. Abromavicius said Ukroboronprom should be kept in good order and run transparently.
In 2014, Lithuanian-born Abromavicius was appointed minister of economic development and trade in the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. However, less than two years later in 2016, he resigned from that post, saying that he could not work effectively because a close political ally of Poroshenko was trying to gain control of state enterprises under his ministry’s authority.
After leaving the economy ministry, Abromavicius chaired the Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy, a Kyiv-based nonprofit that aims to improve the management of Ukrainian state-owned enterprises, and was co-owner of the Agro Region company.
During the 2019 presidential campaign, Abromavicius advised Zelensky on economic matters.
Ukroboronprom is a group of more than 100 enterprises producing military equipment, including advanced weapons systems.
