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Two months ago, Arsen Zhumadilov headed the DPA and says the agency is doing well. What it looks like in numbers, drones and ammunition — the main theses from the meeting on the record with journalists

Author:
Kateryna Kobernyk
Date:
Two months ago, Arsen Zhumadilov headed the DPA and says the agency is doing well. What it looks like in numbers, drones and ammunition — the main theses from the meeting on the record with journalists

Валентина Поліщук / «Бабель»

On March 6, 2025, Arsen Zhumadilov finally headed the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA). In fact, he has been heading it since the end of January. His appointment was preceded by a long conflict between the Ministry of Defense, to which the agency is subordinate, and its head Maryna Bezrukova. You can recall all the stages of this conflict here and immediately read Arsen Zhumadilovʼs January interview. On April 9, he gathered journalists to comment on the information about the merger of the Defense Procurement Agency and the State Logistics Operator (DOT) and answer questions about weapons procurement. Here are his main theses.

The DPA and DOT will be merged after the end of martial law.

No one knows when this will happen, so all the preparatory work must be done in advance. Maintaining two systems after the end of intensive hostilities will be expensive and impractical. All the necessary measures will be prepared by the reorganization commission. The merger will be based on the DPA, so the head of the agency will head the new structure. I will also head the reorganization commission, but it is a collegial body, the deputy will be the current acting head of the DOT.

There should be a single structure in the Defense Forces that conducts procurement.

This is a NATO requirement. This will increase the efficiency of procurement and reduce competition in domestic demand. Stories when budgets are overturned should be isolated and approved only in exceptional circumstances. Previously, the ministry did this because it was not confident in the ability of the Defense Forces to quickly conclude and execute contracts.

As of today, we have made budget commitments of almost 280 billion hryvnias, and the allocations at the beginning of the year were 295 billion kopecks. In fact, we have fulfilled the program by 90+ percent of what was delivered to us at the beginning of the year. In March, we were delivered another 80 billion hryvnias, which means that now our allocations are almost 380 billion. Itʼs about new contracts and additional agreements to previous contracts. These are UAVs, ammunition, and equipment.

How does the DPA work?

  1. The General Staff forms needs from the front, based on the budget allocated for the DPA, and transfers them to the agency.

  2. The agency searches for ready-made weapons in warehouses, negotiates with manufacturers, or works with intermediaries who do it for it. For example, with special importers.

  3. Under some contracts, the DPA pays advances of 10% to 80%. The amount of the advance depends on whether the goods are in stock or need to be manufactured (in which case the advances are larger). After delivery, the agency pays the rest of the money. The DPA does not work with 100% prepayment.

  4. If the supplier violates the delivery terms, he is charged fines. For the DPA, these delays are counted as receivables under contracts. This is considered a miscalculation by the agency.

In two months, the DPA has contracted 1.5 million FPV drones.

We will contract another 200 thousand under direct contracts. And the rest will go to two other models — through Prozorro and through Defense Chain. That is, the total contracted volume will be 2.3 million FPV drones. Of these, almost 300 thousand are fiber-optic drones. At the same time, the total capacity of the [domestic] drone market, according to various estimates, is 7.5 million. A more realistic figure is 5-6 million. In any case, we are not raking everything in for one simple reason — we lack financial resources.

Regarding ammunition, the Defense Ministry has concluded contracts for 85% of the proven needs so far.

We will not satisfy the total need of the Defense Forces in ammunition, it is too high — such an amount is simply not provided for in the state budget.

At the beginning of last year, “Spetstekhnoexport” (STE) was actively contracting with the DPA.

Now in our portfolio of overdue receivables, the STE is in first place in terms of problems — they owed the most for undelivered goods. Most of what the STE owed was not rare or scarce items that were difficult to bring.

Only two out of three hundred people from the team of the previous head of the agency Maryna Bezrukova left the DPA of their own free will.

But there were those whom we fired ourselves. These were people who either did not understand what and why they were doing there, or did not have a value-based approach.

Procurement in the agency is currently handled by six departments — that’s 100+ people.

We have separated the functions of those who interact directly with the market, go to exhibitions and communicate with manufacturers or intermediaries, with the function of evaluating their offers. Because when they are not separated — it’s a super-concentration of powers.

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