Firm owned by Russian national Dmitry Adamovsky supplies food to the Ukrainian army

Food procurement for the Ukrainian army is increasingly accompanied by high-profile scandals. Product quality is sometimes called into question, delivery deadlines are breached, and contracts are occasionally only partially fulfilled. News of such incidents regularly appears in the media, and the military themselves are forced to publicly criticise certain suppliers.

A recent decision by the State Logistics Operator (SLO) has added a new twist to an already tense situation. In June 2024, the agency announced a list of new contractors tasked with supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with food for the next six months. Among them was Trade Granit Invest LLC — a company with which the Ministry of Defence has been engaged in court proceedings for several months.

Who supplies the army with food?

According to official data, food supply contracts were distributed as follows:

• United Food Group Consortium — Rivne, Lviv, and Kyiv regions, including the capital;
• Grand Prix LTD LLC — Kirovohrad, Odesa, and Donetsk regions;
• Trade Granit Invest LLC — Ternopil and Vinnytsia regions;
• Busk Canning Factory LLC — Volyn, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi regions;
• MIT Prom LLC — Cherkasy, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions;
• Akhtyrka Meat Products LLC — Poltava, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions;
• Asics Group LLC — Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

However, Trade Granit Invest attracted the most attention — a company that has won tenders to supply food to the Ukrainian Armed Forces worth over 4.5 billion hryvnia in the past two years, yet is a party to numerous court proceedings with the SLO.

Ties to big business and a scandalous past

Trade Granit Invest was registered in February 2022. The formal owner is Yulia Pavlichenko, who previously participated in the establishment of Ukrainian Locomotive Building Company LLC, linked to the business interests of the Adamovsky family.

Particular attention is drawn to Dmitry Adamovsky — the son of Andriy Adamovsky, a well-known business partner of former MP Oleksandr Hranovsky, who was once referred to as the “overseer” of the Ukrainian judicial system.

Dmitry Adamovsky has also been linked to the fuel company Trade Commodity, which supplied fuel to the Ministry of Defence. In 2018, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) exposed the enterprise for inflating prices and causing losses to the state of at least 150 million hryvnia.

Why is a supplier with such a past working with the Ukrainian Armed Forces again?

The SLO appears to be fully aware of the link between Trade Granit Invest and the Adamovskys, as confirmed even by the agency’s official social media posts. Nevertheless, the company continues to receive state contracts.

Moreover, in February 2024, the Court of Appeal upheld a claim by Trade Granit Invest, which had challenged the Ministry of Defence’s procurement requirements. As a result, the firm not only won the case but also secured a court fee reimbursement of 349,734 hryvnia from the state budget.

Notably, Trade Granit Invest is actively litigating not only against the state but also against competitors, such as United Food Group, attempting to win contracts for specific lots.

Russian traces in the owner’s biography?

The identity of Dmitry Adamovsky raises further questions. According to Ukrainian registry data, he is a Canadian citizen. However, between 2017 and 2019, he resided in Russia, as evidenced by the registration documents of the company Ukrainian Investment Capital, where he is listed as the ultimate beneficial owner.

Furthermore, Russian registries list a complete namesake of Adamovsky, who was a founder of the enterprise Krym-Aromat in Bakhchysarai between 2015 and 2019, suggesting that he may hold a Russian passport or residence permit. If this is indeed the case, it implies that a person affiliated with a Ukrainian military food supplier may have been paying taxes in the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Defence continues to cooperate with Trade Granit Invest, despite ongoing litigation, a dubious reputation, and potential ties to Russian business. 

The very fact of new contracts with Trade Granit Invest calls into question the transparency of the military procurement system.

Based on materials from Snews