Two Incas: why the Ukrainian military-industrial complex needs to be careful when concluding contracts

The third year of the full-scale Russian invasion has begun. In conditions when Western armed assistance reaches Ukraine intermittently, at the highest level it is constantly emphasized that there is no alternative to the development of the domestic defense-industrial complex. But the enemy is also trying to do everything to prevent the strengthening of the armed capabilities of the Ukrainian defence forces. All means are used, and for this, the enemy, in order not to “shine” directly, attracts forces within the country.

Read more about this in the material " Apostrophe ".

Letter from the Emirates

Meet the company "UkrArmoTech" . It has 100% of its founders with Ukrainian citizenship, who lived on the territory of Ukraine during a large-scale war. This seemingly normal fact is actually not that common these days. The company produces critical equipment - armored military vehicles, which are so necessary now for our defenders on the front lines.

UkrArmoTech has the corresponding working design documentation, which it provided to obtain a patent for its developments. The manufacturer has open and closed contracts. One of the contracts, which was not subject to general disclosure and was marked “for official use,” concerned the production of 50 cars for the State Border Service of Ukraine. It is known that the contract was concluded in 2023, the cars were allegedly delivered to the customer, but then strange events began to occur, which the reader himself can assess. When the contract had already been completed and closed, an official letter from the Stop Corruption TV News Agency was received at the State Border Guard Service. The agency was interested in why such a contract was signed at all and for what reasons the border guards chose UkrArmoTech.

Here, the very fact of requesting such information raises a question, since the contract was secret and information about its details simply should not have reached third parties. But further clarification from Stop Corruption shed light on the source of this information.

The authors of the letter recall the Incas Dubai company from the United Arab Emirates, which allegedly claims ownership of this military vehicle project and intends to sue the Ukrainian manufacturer.

The State Border Guard Service, in response to the “Stop Corruption” request, responded that the purchase of armored vehicles was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Law “On Defence Procurement” and Cabinet Resolutions of November 11, 2022 No. 1275 “Some issues of defense procurement during the period of the legal regime of martial law.” And she reminded that this purchase refers to operations classified as “secret”.

Who is who

The INKAS brand needs to be explained here. Indeed, it belongs to a company from Canada, which has a representative office in Ukraine . It specializes in the development and production of a wide range of armored vehicles.

Website of the real representative office of INKAS, which has severed all relations with the Emirati "Inkas Dubai"

But regarding connections with Incas Dubai, the Canadian company seemed to disown it. At one time, the Dubai residents really had a connection with the INKAS brand, but after, according to the Canadians, they violated the agreement on its use, all relations between them and the real owners of the brand were severed.

But the Dubai company continues to operate under this brand. Canadians constantly monitor the activities of their counterpart and remind everyone that they are not responsible for contracts with a company from the Emirates.

Thus, the Canadian company warns on its official resources that the Inkas Dubai company, which continues to present its products at exhibitions under the INKAS trademark, is a parody of the real brand. The owner of the Dubai structure, Ulugbekhon Maksumov, is mentioned separately.

In addition, the Canadian INKAS, having already burned itself, uses its own example to warn those who do business in the Emirates about the specific legislation on intellectual property in this monarchy.

What Canadian brand owners are good at is blocking pages on social networks and other means of Internet communication of Incas Dubai. Therefore, not a single page with the Incas Dubai brand can be found on the Internet - they are blocked everywhere.

However, the resource of the company "InkasArmored Vehicles" is still working. True, the latest news here dates back to 2021.

But that’s not all: in addition to the possible theft of the brand, the business policy of Incas Dubai itself, which positions itself as “the world leader in the production of first-class armored vehicles,” has a negative reputation. This company, according to Uzbek resources, allegedly helps to circumvent sanctions imposed by international society on terrorist countries and representatives of various terrorist communities. Uzbek resources also claimed that the armored vehicles assembled by Incas Dubai allegedly found demand among ISIS terrorists and similar groups operating in Syria and Iraq.

“The geographical location of Dubai contributed to the fact that armored vehicles assembled on the knee found demand among ISIS terrorists and other similar groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” the publication writes.

And the background of the company’s founder (a native of Uzbekistan, Ulugbekhon Maksumov), to put it mildly, is not so hot.

According to some sources, Maksumov is allegedly completely prohibited from traveling outside the UAE. But this does not stop him from trying to make money from the Ukrainian-Russian war.

Greetings from the Kremlin

After Maksumov set his sights on supplying his products to the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, he tried to hide his overt connections with the Kremlin regime and deleted the relevant photos from social networks. But the Internet remembers everything. Here are just a few illustrations of those who are trying to impose supposedly attractively priced equipment on the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

For example, Putin’s favorite patriotic singer Oleh Gazmanov visited the Incas Dubai stand, and the company’s cars are presented by female models in caps and with St. George ribbons on their chests. Maksumov did not find any other images to emphasize the Russian authenticity of the Emirati company.

And this is the chief Russian consul in the UAE, giving an interview to the notorious TV channel of the elite Russian propagandist Margaryta Symonyan against the backdrop of the banner of Maksumov’s company. The dress code is still the same - the indispensable St. George’s ribbon, which since 2014 has become a symbol of Russian aggression.

To whiten his reputation, Maksumov gives out numerous PR interviews in which he tells the story of his “business formation.” Of course, Maksumov does not admit any accusations of imposture and tells how he achieved all his heights on his own.

Founder of Incas Dubai Ulugbekhon Maksumov (right) shows off his huge garage

Numerous investigations into cases of abuse in the Ukrainian arms market are, of course, a signal that order must be restored in this sensitive area. No matter how difficult this may be during the active phase of the war. Whether the Ukrainian political and military authorities should silently observe this, let alone contribute to it, is a rhetorical question. In the context of this story, an interesting question is whether sanctions will be imposed in Ukraine on the possibly pro-Russian manufacturer of military equipment, Incas Dubai, in order to prevent the influence of Russian intelligence services on Ukraine’s defence procurements?