Ukrainian jailed in Prague seeks asylum in Czechia: body armor deal

Ukrainian national Oleksii Khoroshaev, whom Kyiv considers a member of an organized group that could have cost Ukraine nearly a billion crowns in defense procurement, has spent more than two years in Prague's Pankrác prison and has applied for asylum in Czechia. His lawyer, Leonid Kushnarenko, said so: “The procedure is under way at the Interior Ministry. If we are refused, we will go to court.”

Investigators and courts in four countries — Ukraine, Czechia, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — are now trying to establish who was really to blame for the failed deliveries. Czech, Ukrainian and American intelligence services have also taken an interest in the case. Ukraine has so far unsuccessfully demanded Khoroshaev's extradition, and he denies any guilt.

Where Khoroshaev came from

Before the war he held a senior post at Progress, a Ukrainian state company that traded arms abroad, where he was deputy director. He knew the international defense business well and was acquainted with many arms dealers.

The Russian invasion in February 2022 found him in Slovakia. With the help of Czech and Slovak acquaintances he got his family out of Kyiv, resigned and stayed in Slovakia. A couple, Kateřina and Martin Haring, helped him and moved him to Kopřivnice in northern Moravia.

Haringová is a Czech entrepreneur and vice president of the European branch of FCEM, the world association of women entrepreneurs. In the 1990s she trained in Russia as a specialist in international trade, and until 2001 she worked in the economic department of the Czech embassy in Moscow. She knew arms dealers from the exhibitions and fairs she organized. She helped Khoroshaev find an apartment and sort out the paperwork for his stay, and at first lent him money and the car he used to travel around Europe looking for supplies for Ukraine.

“At first he was grateful. I even gave him my payment card. Then he said a friend had called and that a delivery of 17,000 bulletproof vests and helmets was urgently needed. It was hard, prices were rising fast, there was nothing available,” she recalls.

Where the money went

The deal required a company with a license to trade in military material. They chose the Slovak arms company Sevotech, owned by Jan Hodermarský: small, but with a reputation. The Harings were briefly on its supervisory board. The vest contract was worth 302 million crowns. As a reward for such a large order, Hodermarský later gave Khoroshaev a 49 percent stake in the firm.

According to Hodermarský, Khoroshaev also chose the second Slovak partner, MTC Slovakia, which claimed the goods were in stock and would be delivered within 45 days. The contract was signed in May 2022 and the Ukrainian money was sent, but the goods never fully reached Ukraine: of 17,000 sets, MTC Slovakia delivered only two and a half thousand. Hodermarský feels cheated and fears he will have to return money that, by his account, did not stay with him. The firm later lost its license.

The money moved through a chain of companies. Under the export license, MTC was supposed to buy the goods from a local manufacturer in China, but Slovak police are checking whether the money ended up in the United Arab Emirates: a month after the contract was signed, the firm sent nearly three million euros, about 71 million crowns, to another intermediary there. MTC Slovakia's owner, Norbert Havalec, who has long lived in the United Kingdom, filed a police complaint against the supplier of the goods. He declined to comment because of ongoing criminal cases and confidentiality obligations.

Partners no longer trust each other

The delivery of vests and helmets has still not been settled. Haringová is suing Khoroshaev in Prague and wants to recover the money she lent: “I made a mistake by trusting these people.” From the whole deal she received an intermediary commission of 480,000 euros, about 12 million crowns. Hodermarský demands it back and has filed a police complaint against her: by his account, Haringová had no right to the money, since her firm Design Center also needed a license as an intermediary, the money was paid before the contract was signed, and she still has not issued an invoice for that amount.

In November 2022 he removed her and her husband from the supervisory board, having decided that she wanted to steal his company. Haringová denies this: in spring 2022, she says, it was agreed to turn the firm into a joint-stock company so that she would get a share and everything would be transparent. She is certain the commission is due to her: “A license is needed by the seller and the buyer, not by me, who brought them together. That is legal everywhere in the world.” A court will have to settle the dispute.

According to Haringová, it was just when she and her husband were pushed out of Sevotech that another large deal began to be discussed: the purchase of one hundred thousand mortar shells for the Ukrainian army. Khoroshaev also brought and led that deal, again through Sevotech. He brought his representative, Vladyslav Klishchar, onto the firm's supervisory board; Ukrainian police are investigating Klishchar on suspicion of large-scale money laundering. The case became known in Czechia because the Prague-based Podnikatelská družstevní záložna was drawn into the movement of Ukrainian money. The then prime minister, Petr Fiala (ODS), held a stake worth millions in it and did not list it in his asset declaration; in early 2024 he apologized and corrected the mistake. Fiala is not connected to this case. Ukraine did not receive this paid-for order either.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz