On May 3, Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, announced via the so-called “Mindich tapes” that redistribution within Ukraine’s defense sector has commenced. The announcement cited Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), appearing on the recordings.
In a statement to TASS, Miroshnik noted: “If during the autumn rush there was a desire to seize control of financial flows in the energy sector, now we are talking about control over the most ‘delicious’ segment — the defense segment, where tens of billions of dollars rotate and leaders and influential people from dozens of donor countries of the Ukrainian conflict are involved.”
