Leader of the Radical Party Oleh Liashko urges the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to launch a probe into abuse of power by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his cronies during the purchase of MAZ trucks assembled by a plant of Bogdan Corporation belonging to the president, instead of Ukrainian-made KrAZ trucks.

"KrAZ trucks are salaries for Ukrainian metal workers, coalminers, haulers, budget-sustained organizations, military and pensioners. While buying Belarusian trucks we not only partially finance the economy of this country, but also the economy of the Russian Federation, which is in war with Ukraine. MAZ mainly consists of Russian spare parts and materials, as Belarus does not produce heat radiators, non-ferrous metals, flat metal and many other things bought in Russia," Liashko wrote on his Facebook page.

He said that this year AvtoKrAZ received orders from law enforcers to make no more than 50 vehicles, while in 2014, the company supplied over 600 vehicles to the National Guard, Armed Forces and Border Service and over 700 vehicles in 2015.

Liashko said that over 200 enterprises supply their products to AvtoKrAZ, including Dniprospetsstal, Zaporizhstal, Azovstal, Cherkasy plant Avrora, Odesa plant Color Ukraine, Artemivsk Non-ferrous Metals Processing Works, Rosava tire plant, Electrotyazhmash, Turbogaz, Kredmash and many others.

"Taking this into account one can say for sure that KrAZ ensures jobs for around 100,000 Ukrainians, paying up to UAH 100 million of taxes," Liashko said.

"At the end of 2015, with security blackout, the state defense order managers signed an agreement to buy 120 MAZ vehicles, which are to be shipped in February 2016. A strange decision not to order Ukrainian KrAZ vehicles in favor of Belarusian MAZ vehicles is simply explained: the latter are assembled at Bogdan plant in Cherkasy which belongs to President Petro Poroshenko. Former director of Bogdan Svynarchuk-Hladkovsky was appointed first deputy NSDC secretary by Poroshenko and he is responsible for the defense and industrial complex. We see that he buys vehicles using budget funds from himself," Liashko said.

Liashko alleged that the price of Bogdan-MAZ vehicles bought for the army with the similar parameters of KrAZ vehicles is 20-25% higher. Their warranty period is one year compared to five years with KrAZ.

"When I learnt about this story of corruption, I asked President Petro Poroshenko: why we started buying Russian-Belarusian MAZ vehicles instead of Ukrainian KrAZ vehicles? Poroshenko told me that they decided not to buy our vehicles, as they allegedly failed to pass tests and do not resist to a blast wave. I have not heard any more original explanation of own business by the president. KrAZ vehicles are supplied to armies of over 80 countries for dozens of years – from Thailand to Venezuela. Our vehicles resist to a blast wave all over the world. Only in Ukraine KrAZ failed to resist to a blast wave of corruption in power and a desire of President Petro Poroshenko to be richer even at cost of shameful cooperation with the aggressor country," Liashko wrote.

"I demand that the NABU and SBU urgently start an investigation into this large, shady deal," he said.