The Ukrainian company Motor Sich produces goods for the aviation industry. Now the SBU secret service is arresting the company’s president and another executive. They are accused of having supplied Russia with engines for attack helicopters.
According to its own statements, the Ukrainian secret service has arrested two leading representatives of the Ukrainian aviation industry supplier Motor Sich on suspicion of cooperation with Russia. The SBU secret service said it suspected the president of the Motor-Sich concern of having worked with the Russian Federation. The head of the foreign trade department was also arrested. The SBU did not name those arrested.
According to the SBU, the arrests are about a criminal investigation into “illegal deliveries of military goods from Motor Sich for Russian attack aircraft”. Those arrested are suspected of “collaborating” and “helping the aggressor state.” The Ukrainian secret service said that the management of the Motor Sich plant in the Zaporizhia region, which is partly controlled by Russian units, is carried out in consultation with the Russian state-owned defense company Rostec.
According to the SBU, the suspects set up international connections for the delivery of Ukrainian aircraft engines to the “aggressor state”. Russia used them to manufacture and repair helicopters. The helicopters were used “en masse” during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Until the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, Russia was Motor Sich’s largest customer. Since then, trade restrictions against Russia have applied. The Ukrainian company manufactures engines and turbines for airplanes and helicopters, among other things.
