Croatian company sold engines for military helicopters to Russia – DORH investigating

(Patria) - The Aeronautical Technical Center (ZTC) in Velika Gorica sold 22 engines for military helicopters to Russia before the invasion of Ukraine. The deal, worth slightly more than three million euros, is being investigated by the prosecution, Dnevnik Nove TV has confirmed.

"The County State Attorney's Office in Velika Gorica received a criminal complaint from an anonymous submitter. Investigations are underway regarding the received criminal complaint, and as they are secret, we cannot provide you with more detailed information," the response from the County State Attorney's Office to Dnevnik Nove TV's inquiry states.

The signatories of the purchase agreement did not want to appear on camera. Neither did Zdravko Klanac, director of ZTC, a state-owned company, nor the buyer, a representative of Autocentar Merkur, with whom everything was directly agreed upon at the beginning of November last year. They mediated in the further sale and delivery to a third party.

None of them revealed who exactly would use the engines, whose resources had not expired, and for what purpose. They say they will need to be overhauled, and all details of the sale are a business secret... for the purpose of transporting passengers and goods in civil traffic, to a Russian legal entity engaged in commercial civil transport. The buyer is also the end-user of the engines, and the deal was concluded based on the consent of the competent state authorities in Croatia (...) The shipments delivered so far have been made in the dynamics regulated by the contract, they have been handed over to the carrier and properly cleared through customs before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and are no longer under our control," the response from Autocentar Merkur states.

The last shipment of eight engines has since been stopped. Insiders say it is questionable whether it will be delivered at all. The first installment, Dnevnik Nove TV has learned, was transported shortly after the contract was signed, while the second went to the port of Rijeka two days before the war in Ukraine began and left Croatia by ship a week ago.

Retired pilot and expert on the situation in the air force, Ivan Selak, is surprised by such a move.

"Why didn't they sell them to the Ukrainians or give them away, and then we ask NATO to provide some equipment it doesn't need," said Ivan Selak, a retired test pilot of the Croatian Air Force.

There was no public tender, and ZTC did not offer its engines to other potential buyers, but they claim they did not break the law. They informed the Assembly and the Supervisory Board about the negotiations and the sale, and added that they did not need the consent of the Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense, which also responded on behalf of the Government, repeats the same.

"The engines do not fall under the categorization of weapons and military equipment for which the Ministry of Defense issues the necessary approvals. Regardless of the fact that the Ministry of Defense did not need to give approval, we did inform our Western allies, from whom we received consent that ZTC could do this. Certificates of end-users were duly obtained," the response from ZTC states.

On the other hand, Selak disagrees with such a way of doing business: "Are you kidding me? We received these helicopters as military equipment, and we probably bought these engines as military equipment. I can't believe someone would declare this as civilian equipment. You have the right to sell military equipment, but don't lie and sell it as civilian. That's ridiculous."

In addition to the prosecution, which is conducting investigations and wants to examine everything, the case has also come under the scrutiny of the Military Security and Intelligence Agency, which was once headed by ZTC director Klanac. The Office of the President and Supreme Commander also commented on the matter. They state that the President of the Republic, Zoran Milanović, was not aware of this, nor is he competent to make such a decision.