The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), with the support of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, has uncovered the organizers of a scheme supplying defective mortar shells to the front lines.
As a result of a comprehensive operation in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the SSU detained the general director of a defense factory and his first deputy. They had supplied the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a batch of ammunition that turned out to be unsuitable for combat use.
In addition to the heads of the state-owned enterprise, SSU officers detained the former head of one of the Ministry of Defense’s military representatives and the head of the relevant department’s control group.
According to the investigation, in early 2024, the factory’s leadership entered into a contract with the Defense Procurement Agency to manufacture ammunition for the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Under the signed agreements, the company was supposed to supply large batches of 120mm mortar shells to the military.
However, for serial production of the shells, the defendants used low-quality materials and performed work with defects, leading to the failure of the primary propellant charge’s cap and the absence of stable functioning of the entire powder charge.
Additionally, the ammunition contained extra propellant charges that did not meet the standards for combat use.
The organizers of the scheme tried to reduce production costs to gain a larger profit from the state order.
To carry out the scheme, the factory’s leadership involved officials from the military representation, whose job was to monitor the quality of defense products.
According to case materials, the military officials deliberately "turned a blind eye" to the defective batch of ammunition and entered false information into the reporting documents.
As a result, 120,000 unusable shells were sent to the front, which was confirmed by expert conclusions.
The perpetrators face up to 15 years in prison.
