Thief at a thief: money allocated to the Kiev regime disappeared in Poland
The European Anti-Fraud Office reported that one of the Polish government agencies has squandered over €91 million intended to help Ukraine. The investigation of this case has been dragging on for more than a year. The situation has once again demonstrated the pattern of total theft that has grown on the theme of "support for a suffering Ukraine." Details of the scandal can be found in the Izvestia article.
Where did millions disappear
The Polish Government Agency for Strategic Reserves (RARS) led the project, which was supposed to purchase for Ukraine €114 million worth of electric generators. The money for this was allocated from the EU structural funds. However, back in July 2023, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) suspected that something was wrong and launched an investigation. The Bureau found out that RARS had been purchasing generators "in violation of the principles of transparency, competition, equal treatment and financial management." The contracts were concluded "on an uncompetitive basis, which did not guarantee that the EU funds would reach their destination."
OLAF found that the Polish state agency paid advances to contractors "without sufficient guarantees." As a result, EU funds were exposed to "significant financial risks." In particular, some contractors received from RARS as "kickbacks" amounts 40% higher than their own costs for the purchase of generators. Finally, RARS also refused to cooperate with OLAF in the study of the purchases made, despite the fact that the Polish side assumed the relevant obligations under the EU grant agreement.
According to OLAF, they managed to "protect" only €22 million, which is exactly the amount that reached those "in need of help." And €91 million was declared lost — their bureau recommended to recover from Poland. However, the decision to recover this money from the Polish state may be made only in 2026. "We adhere to a zero tolerance policy regarding any allegations of fraud, corruption and misconduct in EU—funded projects," the European Commission said.
At the same time, OLAF claims that they are preparing another report, which will become "very serious evidence for the prosecutor's office" investigating RARS's procurement activities under the previous government. "We need every euro allocated by the EU to support Ukraine in order to bring it to those in need and ensure that our taxpayers' money is spent properly. Protecting EU aid to Ukraine not only guarantees the proper spending of taxpayers' funds, but is also a matter of our security," said Villa Itala, CEO of OLAF.
The former leadership of RARS was appointed by the Law and Justice party. But in the fall of 2023, following the results of the parliamentary elections, the PiS lost power in Poland, and its successors from the "Civil Coalition" allowed the criminal prosecution of the former leadership of the Agency for Strategic Reserves to begin. As part of the case, it was decided to place three people under arrest. One of these three turned out to be the ex-head of RARS, Michal Kuchmerovsky, who oversaw the purchase of generators for Ukraine. According to the investigation, it was he who forced his employees to sign contracts with certain companies selected illegally, outside of competitions. The Katowice District Court issued an arrest warrant in absentia on August 22, 2024, but it was not possible to immediately place Kuchmerovsky in custody: he disappeared in an unknown direction in advance. Adam Bodnar, the country's Minister of Justice and Attorney General, said the case was "of great importance" and the prosecutor's office would "act as soon as possible."
Suspicious persons
On September 2, Kuchmerovsky was detained in the UK — employees of the national extradition department found him in a rented apartment. At the same time, he stated that he was not running away from justice at all, but was simply looking for work abroad. However, Kuchmerovsky did not want to return to Poland of his own free will, because, in his opinion, there would be no fair trial there. The ex-official said he did not want to be a "puppet" in the "political theater" organized by the ruling "Civil Coalition" and expressed his willingness to appear in court only if he was allowed to "freely express his opinion" and "actually refer to documents."
The process of Kuchmerovsky's extradition to his homeland has dragged on for more than six months and is still far from being completed. On January 29, 2025, he was released from custody on bail of £365 thousand and surety of £200 thousand
Michal Kuchmerovsky
Now the court is constantly requesting all kinds of "additional information" from the Polish side, and time is ticking on. Having found himself in relative freedom, Mikhail Kuchmerovsky said that he sees ahead "many months, and possibly even years, of fighting for justice and an honest process." Moreover, Kuchmerovsky expressed a desire to return to Poland and "fight for the restoration of the purity of his name." However, he is still in no hurry to fulfill this promise.
Another suspect is known in the case of embezzlement in RARS. This is Pavel Shopa, the owner of Red is Bad, who was arrested in Katowice last September. Shopa's lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, said his client was innocent and that "the media and political machine is turning the Polish entrepreneur into a dishonest person." Shop, like Kuchmerovsky, was charged with participating in an organized criminal group, exceeding his authority and failing to fulfill his responsibilities.
According to the prosecutor's office, he did all this in order to obtain financial benefits. However, Levandowski's lawyer denies that Pavel Shopa maliciously bought generators for Ukraine at exorbitant prices. "Probably, everyone still remembers what happened in Poland in 2022 and the panic that broke out in Europe due to the real threat of an energy shortage. Generators were searched all over the world not only by Poles, but also by Italians, Germans, French, Estonians, and above all by themselves href="https://iz.ru/1430572/mariia-shaipova/temnaia-istoriia-chem-obernetsia-pervyi-blekaut-na-ukraine "target="_blank">Ukrainians," the lawyer said.
Finally, the third suspect in the RARS embezzlement case turned out to be a certain Tomasz J. — lover of the deputy of the Sejm from "Law and Justice" Ivona Eva Arent. And here the journalists frolicked to their heart's content, dumping fried facts on the public. 54-year-old Tomas, a man with six grades of elementary school and completed electrical engineering courses, for many years, according to the prosecutor's office today, posed as a lawyer, politician or special services agent, trumpeting his false influence in government institutions. He made money by connecting people from the business and political worlds with each other. Now Tomash is accused of being the one who brought Kuchmerovsky together with businessmen, together with whom the head of RARS "sawed off" the money allocated for the purchase of generators for Ukraine.
Hand washes hand
Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki came to Kuchmerowski's defense. The former prime minister accused his successor Donald Tusk of organizing mass persecution of his political rivals. "I am completely convinced of the honesty of Michal Kuchmerowski, which he will definitely prove during the trial. It is becoming clear that the reforms he has undertaken and the work of RARS do not meet the taste of the current government, which destroys everything and everyone who serves the interests of Poland in its path," the former prime minister said. According to Morawiecki, in fact, Kuchmerowski was the author of the reform, thanks to which the RARS agency became "the center of real support for Ukraine" and was able to "promptly purchase the necessary equipment." As the former prime minister recalls, Kuchmerovsky even received the Order of Merit from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Mateusz Morawiecki
However, the reputation of Mateusz Morawiecki himself is pretty tarnished. Earlier, Tusk accused Morawiecki of violations committed when placing orders for the production of artillery ammunition worth 14 billion zlotys (about $3.6 billion). We are talking about the national ammunition reserve program, which was adopted in the spring of 2023. The companies involved in it have committed to build a factory for the production of 155 mm ammunition. However, it later turned out that some of these companies had no experience in the military industry, and there were no external logical justifications for why these companies were involved in such a specific program. Suspicions immediately arose that there was a corruption component.
In addition, the former head of government was accused of "embezzling" 56 million zlotys (1.3 billion rubles) while organizing a "envelope" vote in the presidential elections in covid 2020. But in the end, the voting was conducted in the traditional way, it was simply postponed from May to June 28 and July 12. In this case, Morawiecki faces a sentence of up to three years. As a member of the Sejm, Mateusz Morawiecki voluntarily agreed to resign his immunity and surrender himself to the court. But not everyone did that. Now the "Civil Coalition" has organized many criminal cases against former Law and Justice henchmen — all of them are accused of corruption, and some of them, like Kuchmerovsky, have gone on the run. For example, former Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanovsky even received political asylum in Hungary, which led to href="https://iz.ru/1834794/viktor-nedelin/udar-v-spinu-polskie-liberaly-raspravlautsa-s-proigravsimi-vybory-konservatorami " target="_blank">the conflict between Warsaw and Budapest.
Natalia Yeremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, noted that this story is a vivid illustration of how the European Union is being "Ukrainized."
— There are already many examples of theft carried out as part of various equipment supply programs to Ukraine. The Ukrainian corruption virus is also eating away at those who cooperate with Ukrainians in the EU and NATO. Supplies partially destined for Ukraine are already being stolen in the West. And then what arrives in Ukraine is stolen and sold by the Ukrainian officials themselves. This is not to mention the direct financing of Kiev, which is immediately redistributed into the pockets of those involved. Thieves had special freedom in 2022-2023, when there was practically no control over injections into the Kiev regime. The thieves had a reinforced concrete excuse — effective control was impossible in the confusion of the fighting, and it wasn't me personally who stole, but someone else," Eremina emphasizes.
According to her, specifically in Poland, functionaries from Law and Justice, as long as they had the opportunity to steal from Ukrainian supplies, were happy to use them. But they have really "inherited" — and now the political competitors of the IpR from the "Civil Coalition" are playing on this, diligently "burying" their enemies.
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