In an interview with "Babel", the former head of the UIA airline Yevhen Dykhne informed that he received $20 000 per month in the company.
His contract as the president of the airline expired in September 2022. When he was asked why the contract was not extended, Dykhne says:
"It was a mutual decision — mine and the chairman of the Supervisory Board [Aron Mayberg]. He and I are in a fairly long public conflict, so he worked until the end of the contract, and thatʼs all. I fulfilled my duty to the company. In the summer of 2022, there were a lot of tasks from the state. We used humanitarian flights to deliver goods to our border with Poland, and then they went to Ukraine. We also worked with a large Polish tour operator ITAKA. He was satisfied with our work."
According to him, UIA flew until the last day of his contract, and as soon as it ended, the company stopped.
"And not because I am a great president, but because after my dismissal and the appointment of a new president, the conflict between shareholders intensified. As they say, a scythe has hit the stone, and it had a bad effect on the company," he noted.
Earlier, in an interview with Forbes, Maiberg criticized Dykhne for the fact that UIA was actually on the verge of survival and he was unable to optimize its work. Because of this, Mayberg wanted to fire Dykhne, but another shareholder Ihor Kolomoiskyi was on his side.
"I did not participate in the conflict between shareholders, I had my own ideological conflict with Mayberg. He took me from my favorite job in Boryspil, where I worked as the first deputy general director, and invited me to the ambitious task of reforming UIA. I had a vision and a desire to make one significant leap in my life — to reform the national aviation operator. Before accepting this job, I put forward many conditions. One of them is the freedom to make personnel and strategic decisions," Dykhne stated.
"When Mayberg called me to work, he assured me that he was tired of managing the company himself and was ready to leave it in good hands. When it came down to it, it turned out that he manages UIA in manual mode, two decision-making centers appeared. I had to be conflicted. Mayberg demanded additional agreements from me, which do not correspond to the companyʼs charter," he explained.