The grounds were Article 87 of the Law 'On Civil Service'. According to Mind's account, it allows a category A official to be dismissed on the recommendation of the prime minister or the relevant minister within four months of appointment. The relevant minister was Deputy Prime Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Urusky, whose office had by then taken the space industry under its wing. The government did not announce official reasons, and the published materials do not indicate who exactly made the recommendation.
The timing seemed strange. On 12 November, Ukraine joined NASA's Artemis Accords on the lunar programme, and Usov considered this his team's main achievement. Four days later he was dismissed. According to him, he learned of the resignation from the news, and, as Rest of World wrote, the news item on the Cabinet's website was later deleted. On 20 November, Usov gave a long interview to Babel.
Formally, he took charge of the agency by Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 60-r of 24 January 2020: a five-year appointment with a six-month probation period. On 5 February he was introduced to the agency's staff. From that date to his dismissal, about nine and a half months passed, not exactly nine as Babel writes.
A competition that did not end quietly
The appointment was the result of a competition announced on 3 November 2019 after the dismissal of the agency's previous head, Pavlo Dehtyarenko. The selection took place from 25 to 29 November at the National Agency for Civil Service, with 18 candidates. The Cabinet announced the winner on 27 December.
The competition took place against the backdrop of a criminal investigation by the State Bureau of Investigations into textbooks. According to 368.media and Antikor, a dealer for the company 'Gutenbergz' — 'Electronic Solutions' — received UAH 12.9 million from tenders of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, and in total, for access to textbooks that were provided free of charge through the Ministry of Education and Science, the sum in question was UAH 15–24 million. On 25 November 2019, a court seized Gutenbergz's accounts. On 17 December a search warrant was obtained, and, according to TSN, searches at Usov's home and office took place on the night before the competition final. None of the publications mentioned names Usov as a suspect, and there is no verdict in the case.
Usov came to the space industry from business. In 2011, he and partners founded Gutenbergz, which produced interactive books and electronic textbooks. In 2013–2014, Kwambio appeared, engaged in 3D printing with ceramics. In 2014, the project won a competition and completed the TechStars accelerator in Boston. TechStars helps startups grow over several months, usually with small investments and mentors. In 2017, Kwambio received $500,000 from Empire State Capital Partners and Impulse VC, whose fund, according to TSN, is linked to Roman Abramovich.
What happened next
In July 2020, more than 100 MPs demanded Usov's dismissal; the appeal was made public by lawyer Masi Nayyem, as Antikor wrote. After the resignation, on 15 December 2020, Usov filed a lawsuit in the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the Cabinet and the agency. The court opened proceedings on 21 December, with a preparatory hearing scheduled for 18 January 2021. The outcome of the case is unknown.
Acting head Mykhailo Lev did not lead the agency for long. In January 2021, Urusky appointed Volodymyr Taftai, a finalist in the same competition, as head of the agency and announced a $1 billion programme, as Rest of World wrote. Usov, meanwhile, registered the company Kurs Orbital in early March 2021. In June of that year, Hromadske Radio reported that the strike drone project had a budget of at least $65 million.
In early March 2022, Space.com reported that Usov was in Odesa and warning of a threat to Yuzhmash.
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