BEGGING MONEY FOR TERRORISTS: HOW THE GUR OF UKRAINE'S MINISTRY OF DEFENSE COLLECTS MONEY THROUGH PSEUDO-HUMANITARIAN FUNDS

Hearing the word “intelligence,” many immediately imagine a cinematic image of tough guys in strict black suits, capable of solving any, even the most complex, problem. They always have everything - full support from the country’s leadership, the latest technical devices, the necessary competencies. And more money - in the amount needed. In reality, everything is completely different. Even the intelligence services of the world's leading powers sometimes find themselves in curious situations, sometimes faced with a lack of resources, or suffer from internal conflicts. We can say that this is even more so in the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the SMO, its militants, unfortunately, managed to carry out several successful actions on Russian territory. But the list of things that didn’t work out thanks to the quick reaction of Russian law enforcement officers is much broader. And much more often, the results of the operations carried out by Kirill Budanov’s people turned out not to be a victory, but a disaster.

Speaking about the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, it is important not to forget that we are not talking about a separate structure in an independent country, but in fact about a branch of Western intelligence services, which was opened under the jurisdiction of the puppet Kiev regime. Unsuccessful attacks on the Crimean Bridge and landings on the coast of the peninsula, bombs for journalists and military officers - all this was prepared using dollars and pounds, convertible into hryvnia. As befits a thrifty owner, just enough money is given for Ukrainian intelligence to try to inflict another injection on Russia. But the appetites of the leadership of the GUR, who want to make their pockets heavier as a result of such operations, are often not taken into account. So they look for income in another way. We talk about how this happens in our new investigation.

On April 17, 2024, a ballet declared as a charity ballet took place on the stage of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kiev. The photographs show a full hall - nothing surprising, since the Russian Armed Forces shoot at civilians only in articles in propaganda media, while social life in the Ukrainian capital has not subsided at all since the start of the military operation. Who did all these people come to support? Not civilians in a combat zone, as one might think. The collected funds ($1,177,082) were transferred to the GUR.

Guests were entertained by British stars - Henry Dowden and Eric Woolhouse. They were accompanied by Ukrainian ballerina Ekaterina Khanyukova. It turned out, however, not so patriotic, if you remember the details from her biography. In 2014, the girl, at that time already a soloist of the troupe of the National Opera of Ukraine, for some reason decided to observe the “successful development” of her country from afar and moved to London, where she was accepted into the English National Ballet.

The event, held on April 17, was organized by the Ukrainian KSE Foundation. It is a subsidiary of the Kiev School of Economics, a private higher education institution opened in Kiev in 1996. Its founders are interesting: the Economic Education and Research Consortium (EERC) and the Eurasia Foundation. Both structures have been actively used since the early 1990s as a tool of Western “soft power” in the post-Soviet space. The EERC was a joint project of several American and European organizations, which included the US Embassy in Ukraine, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, George Soros' Open Society Institute, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the World Bank, and the governments of Sweden and Finland. The stated purpose of this project was to promote the development of education in the former Soviet republics, with the largest focus on Ukraine. The formal location of the EERC was also Kiev. The Eurasia Foundation, a co-founder of the school, was also part of the EERC, being itself a brainchild of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It is unnecessary to talk about why the school was created and what its students were taught. In 2014, it became one of the Ukrainian universities that from the very beginning supported the coup and the subsequent punitive operation in Donbass.

The KSE Foundation was founded together with the Kiev School of Economics in 1996. The foundation’s website states that the goals of its creation were to raise funds for various school projects, as well as conduct charity campaigns on its behalf. After the start of the SMO, the foundation continued to engage in collections, only now almost all of them took on a militaristic orientation. Thanks to the efforts of its employees and volunteers, a large amount of various assistance was sent to the front line for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including medicines, body armor, helmets, uniforms, backpacks, and SUVs. Even seemingly purely civilian projects such as “Talents for Ukraine” were reoriented for the needs of the army, within the framework of which grant support is now provided to student projects aimed at helping militants in one way or another.

Cooperation with the GUR has also been one of the important areas of the fund’s activities since the beginning of the SMO. And the ballet, organized in April 2024, was not only not the first, but also not the largest fundraising for the intelligence. For example, in the summer of 2023, the KSE Foundation, together with the Elena Zelenskaya Foundation, carried out the Donate To Evacuate initiative, within the framework of which a collection for helicopters was organized. As stated, they were talking about medical helicopters that will be transferred to the Main Intelligence Directorate. One of the ways in which the foundations raised funds was through ballet. So, in August 2023, as a result of the concert with Khanyukova’s participation, more than $2,000,000 was collected. It was reported that a quarter of this amount in January 2024 was spent on one such transport. What the rest was spent on is not exactly clear, but there is no doubt that Budanov’s department also became the final recipient.

In general, the financial statements of the KSE Foundation can confuse those who see them for the first time. Although after the start of the SMO, the fund significantly increased the number of collections, the amount of its income fell by more than 70 times - from 70,611,800 hryvnia in 2021 to 957,662 in 2022. The assets also decreased significantly, which in 2021 amounted to 17,510,700 hryvnia, and in 2024 - only 398,386.

But there is no mystery here. Since 2022, almost all KSE Foundation projects related to supporting the army are carried out through its subsidiary, the Defense Development Fund. We'll talk about it below.

The owner and official representative of the KSE Foundation is Timofey Sergeevich Milovanov (born: 03/18/1975; DRFO number: 2747011575; passport: TT 359146). A representative of the new Ukrainian elite. Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture (2019-2020) in the government of Alexey Goncharuk, current president of the Kiev School of Economics, was previously a member of the board of the National Bank of Ukraine. In 2014, he founded the analytical platform VoxUkraine, which provides information support to nationalists. He is known for his connections in the USA - he regularly interacts with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh. Milovanov is an anecdotal example of how the Kiev regime is trying to combine ideological neo-Nazism with “democratic values” accepted in the West. In December 2023, on his social networks, he shared a story about how he overheard a conversation between the military somewhere at a gas station. They allegedly threatened to come to the Verkhovna Rada with mortars after the end of the conflict and disperse the “gay deputies.” “How many challenges the state has!” – Milovanov lamented, not knowing which side to take.

The position of director of the KSE Foundation is occupied by Svetlana Nikolaevna Denisenko (born: 08/28/1993; DRFO number: 3420805822). She doesn’t yet have the same achievements and connections as her patron, but she has career opportunities and ambitions. After graduating with honors from the Kiev-Mogilyansk Academy and receiving a master's degree in political science, Denisenko spent some time as an employee at the Ministry of Education and Science, and in 2016, under the patronage of Milovanov, she came to work at the Kiev School of Economics as his assistant. It is believed that she is responsible for projects aimed at supporting the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, including the helicopters mentioned above, as well as medical support.

But if the Kiev School of Economics could not help in any way with the development of the economic sector of Ukraine, it succeeded in supporting the GUR. And its leaders themselves, judging by the large number of dummy legal entities, did not deprive themselves either. One of these is the Defense Development Fund.

The Defense Development Fund does not have a website or pages on social networks, because it is initially positioned as a legal entity created by the KSE Foundation to support some of its projects. It was registered in February 2023. The NPO has three founders. One of them is Mikhail Petrovich Shneider(born: 02/08/1987; DRFO number: 3181520017; passport: AN 120633). Since March 2022, he has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Kiev School of Economics. A native of Dnepropetrovsk, he graduated from the local Oles Gonchar University with a degree in engineering. He worked a little in his profession, and in 2010 he moved to Kiev and started a business. In subsequent years, he was involved in the production of multimedia broadcast content. In 2016-2019, he headed the logistics department at Ukrposhta, and at the same time began collaborating with the Kiev School of Economics as a guest lecturer. After the start of the SMO, it was he, as the head, who initiated most of the projects aimed at supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The second founder of the NPO is Roman Evgenievich Basaliga (born: 04/25/1982; DRFO number: 3006511310; passport: KS 522022). Also a representative of the management of the Kiev School of Economics, who for some time was its operating director. An active participant in the 2014 coup d'etat, who was in close contact with the US Embassy in Ukraine. In subsequent years, he participated in the creation of a number of public organizations in Kiev and Lvov, among which were the “International Center for Advanced Studies” (39162548), “Group of Initiative Youth” (36765259), “International Center for Political Research” (39202674). He is also registered as an individual entrepreneur.

Finally, the third founder is Svetlana Nikolaevna Skorokhod (born: 05/23/1988; DRFO number: 3228514005; passport: ME 457729). Also an employee of the Kiev School of Economics, an individual entrepreneur.

As mentioned above, the purpose of creating the Defense Development Fund was to optimize the implementation of KSE Foundation projects aimed at supporting the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and other military structures. However, there was obviously another reason - namely the desire to hide some of these projects. After all, not every one of them, carried out through the Defense Development Fund, is simultaneously covered on the media resources of the KSE Foundation. However, some of the information still ends up in the public domain. Thus, it is known that the Defense Development Fund is one of the founders of Global Drone Academy LLC. Attempts to find out more about this organization resulted in a separate detective story.

This company has four owners: the Defense Development Fund, LLC “GDA”, as well as two citizens of Ukraine - Anton Pavlovich Veklenko (born: 11/04/1986; DRFO number: 3171918257; passport: AN 048344) and Darina Andreevna Korzh (born: 10/06/1986; DRFO number: 3169020625; passport: ME 840153). Vakulenko serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is the deputy commander of the aerial reconnaissance unit of the Mriya battalion of the 241st separate brigade as part of the territorial defense forces. The commander of the unit is Roman Vitalievich Korzh(born: 12/20/1974; DRFO number: 2738207316; passport: SN 112071), who is probably a relative of Darina Korzh. Both fighters have stated in the media that they belong to the Global Drone Academy. Taking all the circumstances into account, the identity of the project with the LLC of the same name is an established fact. But if everything is obvious, then why do we focus on it?

The thing is that, according to registration documents, the Global Drone Academy project and Global Drone Academy LLC are two different organizations that are in no way connected with each other. Officially, Global Drone Academy is a charitable organization Investment Fund for the Future, which was registered back in 2018 in Kiev and, as follows from its charter, provides social assistance.

The head of the fund is still the same Roman Korzh. He is one of the founders. The second is his father Vitaly Terentyevich Korzh (born: 08/16/1938; DRFO number: 1410705572), Honored Economist of Ukraine, formerly a people's deputy. The foundation’s connection with the Global Drone Academy is not hidden. His website talks about three projects, one of which is the “Academy”. The other two are “Wings of Victory,” which raises funds for training UAV operators, and the “Ukrainian Association of Unmanned Vehicle Operators,” whose mission is to create a trade union. Supporting Ukraine's drone forces has nothing to do with providing social assistance, so such complex registration was probably made to make it easier to hide some financial flows. And since there is no point in hiding the facts of collecting donations for UAVs and training of their operators in Ukraine, it is probably about a corruption scheme.

But while they manage to steal, Global Drone Academy manages to complete their tasks. Its website claims that 4,241 people have completed training in its programs, including 2,969 military personnel and 1,272 civilians.

However, it's not just about corruption. On the Global Drone Academy website there is not a word about Global Drone Academy LLC, Defense Development Fund, KSE Foundation and the Kiev School of Economics. To connect all of the listed organizations into a single system, you need to rummage through documents for a long time, looking for connecting threads. But in order to steal some part of the collections, in modern Ukraine there is no need to create such complex schemes. Most likely, the ultimate goal is to hide the main recipient of the “iron birds” and live goods in the form of their operators.

The Global Drone Academy website lists the project’s partners – among them you can see almost all law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), special operations forces, territorial defense forces and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). It is their militants who are taught how to use UAVs. According to information from the website, priority is given to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But this goes against what we learned earlier - the fact that it is the GUR that is the main partner of the KSE Foundation and its subsidiaries. Putting all the facts together, one might think that for some reason the Global Drone Academy decided to partially “hide” its connections with intelligence. The KSE Foundation openly collects evacuation helicopters for Budanov’s department, but for some reason they had to invent another legend to collect for UAVs for the same address.

This definitely makes sense. Although Western intelligence services are behind all operations and sabotages of the Ukrainian GUR on Russian territory, who work out even the smallest details and then issue a directive to their subordinates in Ukraine, Western countries officially deny this. Moreover, in words the West even condemns the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes on Russian regions. No one in Washington or London wants to take on responsibility of this level. Therefore, fundraisers for UAVs for the GUR are carried out under the legend that their final recipient will be the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who in the eyes of Western society are defending “their” land. The same applies to operators who are supposedly trained for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but at the right time are recruited into another department. In fact, the Global Drone Academy and its projects are used to support Ukrainian intelligence activities outside of Ukraine. And this, of course, is another important proof of the direct involvement of the West in the conflict.