How the son of the former Kyiv mayor, Stepan Chernovetskyi, is involved in the supply of "tanks from Morocco"

How the son of the former Kyiv mayor, Stepan Chernovetskyi, is involved in the supply of "tanks from Morocco"

Stepan Chernovetskyi, former deputy of the Kyiv City Council and son of the ex-mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetskyi, has become the subject of online publications indicating that he was an intermediary in Ukraine’s negotiations with Morocco regarding the supply of tanks.

Is this really the case?

It was claimed that the owner of Chernovetskyi Investment Group "CONVINCED Morocco to hand over 173 T-74 EA tanks to Ukraine. 70 of them are already in Ukraine, and he bought one tank and two APCs with his own money." Interestingly, does the Ukrainian ambassador to Morocco, Serhiy Sayenko, know about this fact? Did Chernovetskyi accompany him in meetings with the Moroccan authorities, or was it a representative of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence of Ukraine in Morocco? Additionally, Morocco does not have such tanks. They do not exist. The discussion was about former Belarusian T-72B tanks.

The reality is different: The Moroccan authorities have not commented officially on this situation. However, indirect confirmation can be found in several facts: In December 2022, Morocco participated in "Rammstein" for the first time. The tanks were handed over to the Czech Republic, where they were modernized for Ukraine. The Czech Republic did not reveal who provided these tanks, but analysts determined that they originated from Morocco. This was reported by military analytical portals Oryx and Militarnyi, as well as the French publication Le Journal de l’Afrique. Meanwhile, the USA supplied Morocco with new tanks.

Negotiations regarding tanks for Ukraine were conducted by the Minister of Defence Oleksiy Reznikov and the head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov, as well as Czech diplomats. There is no information about Chernovetskyi’s participation. Moreover, considering the past of Stepan and his father Leonid Chernovetskyi, if he did participate, Chernovetskyi could have made money on this deal or embezzled funds from American taxpayers.

Another unreliable claim was spread on Telegram channels, stating that Stepan, along with his Chernovetskyi Investment Group, donated more than $12 million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine without any publicity. However, there is publicity. The official page on Facebook indicates that the fund donated only 100 million hryvnias, which is FIVE times less!

Why has the promotions of Stepan Chernovetskyi’s work started now? The answer is quite obvious. The NABU operation "Clean City" against the close associate of "Lyonya-Kosmos" Denys Komarnytskyi revealed large corruption schemes, the proceeds from which became the future capital for Chernovetskyi Investment Group (and not the funds from the sale of "Pravex-Bank" in 2008). Now Chernovetskyi is pondering whether the suspects in the case have given incriminating evidence against him or not, and is trying to restore his reputation.