AOZ terminated two contracts with Lider-NTZ due to complete lack of body armour deliveries

The Agency for Defence Procurement (AOZ) has officially terminated two more state agreements with LLC "Lider-NTZ". The primary reason was that the company failed to deliver a single modular body armour set to the customer. Notices of contract termination, dated 2 October 2026, appeared in the electronic procurement system Prozorro.

Details of the cancelled agreements

The terminated contracts provided for the supply of significant volumes of protective equipment:

• The first agreement was signed on 20 April 2026. It provided for the supply of 2,000 sets worth 32.8 million UAH (excluding VAT) with a deadline of 25 September.
• The second contract was concluded on 20 May 2026 for 6,000 sets worth 149.94 million UAH. According to the terms, 3,000 units were to be delivered by 25 September, and the rest by 25 November.

The total value of these two contracts was 182.74 million UAH for 8,000 sets.

Inspection results and reasons for termination

As of 29 September 2026, no items under these contracts had been delivered. During an inspection on 31 August, no finished products were found in the warehouse, and the production of ballistic elements had only just begun. A follow-up inspection on 28 September recorded the presence of 2,000 covers, but mass production of key components had not started due to a shortage of raw materials — polymer materials from a foreign supplier. Company representatives could not specify the exact dates for the arrival of this raw material.

Consequently, AOZ fully terminated the May contract, despite the fact that the delivery deadline for the second batch had not yet passed. The agency imposed a fine of 20% of the value of the undelivered goods: 6.56 million UAH under the first contract and 29.99 million UAH under the second. The total amount of sanctions exceeded 36.5 million UAH. The company is obliged to pay the fine within seven working days, otherwise AOZ may take the matter to court.

Issues with the helmet contract

This is not the only case of non-performance by "Lider-NTZ". On 15 January 2026, the company signed a contract for the supply of 40,000 ballistic helmets worth 295.84 million UAH. The first 10,000 units were to be delivered by 30 June. According to journalists, as of 27 August, the customer had received only 1,000 helmets, with questions arising regarding the weight, dimensions, and internal lining of certain batches. On the same day, AOZ announced its unilateral withdrawal from the contract.

Even before this agreement was signed, the State Audit Service had noted the risk of the company submitting false documents regarding its experience. According to public registers, until autumn 2025, the enterprise was engaged in real estate leasing, operating at a loss, and had only two employees. It obtained a licence for the production of personal protective equipment on 15 December 2025, i.e. one day before the announcement of the helmet tender.

In April 2026, AOZ simultaneously considered two proposals from "Lider-NTZ": for body armour covers and for the body armour itself. In the tender for covers, the company was rejected due to its inability to confirm the availability of employees, while in the body armour tender, it was declared the winner. In May, another contract was signed with it, with a volume three times larger.

Corporate links and criminal context

In autumn 2025, according to media reports, the owner and beneficiary of the company became Hlib Yevtushenko, the son of Yuriy Yevtushenko. In January 2026, after the helmet contract was signed, he withdrew from the list of owners. Currently, the participants of LLC "Lider-NTZ" are Ksenia Bila, David Myrotadze, and Andriy Olary, while the position of director is held by Oksana Markovska.

In 2019, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) notified Yuriy Yevtushenko of suspicion in the so-called "body armour case" under Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. According to the investigation, the case concerned protective equipment that did not meet established requirements. Yevtushenko himself denied the accusations. There is no information about a verdict in this case in open sources.

In the public domain, "Lider-NTZ" is also associated with Oleg Mitrokhin, the owner of LLC "MIK". No direct corporate link between them has been established in public registers. However, at the end of 2025, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) found "MIK" and "Pakoptorg" guilty of coordinating behaviour in tenders of the State Rear Operator and fined the companies 30 million and 6.3 million UAH respectively.

Currently, all contracts between "Lider-NTZ" and AOZ have been terminated. The main problem lies not in the financial sanctions, but in the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are left without the promised protective equipment, on which the lives of soldiers at the front depend. For the state, this means the loss of critically important time in the context of ongoing hostilities.