Military counterintelligence operatives of the Security Service of Ukraine have exposed a corrupt scheme that led to the disruption of a state order for the production of a large batch of ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine ahead of a full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation.
This pertains to the execution of a defense contract for supplying artillery shells to the Ukrainian military, totaling nearly UAH 270 million.
According to the investigation, the leadership of three private companies involved in the manufacturing process received orders from the Ministry of Defense for the production of these types of munitions.
As per the signed contracts, the entrepreneurs were supposed to deliver the combat munitions by February 2022.
However, by that deadline, the companies had only supplied a portion of the ordered munitions to the Ministry of Defense, which were subsequently found to be defective due to the use of substandard propellant. This technical flaw renders the ammunition unusable in combat conditions and results in the malfunction of the artillery itself. This fact was revealed by defense experts during testing of the received artillery shells.
Following this discovery, the defective batch of munitions was returned to the manufacturing companies for rectifying the identified deficiencies. However, the entrepreneurs have yet to address the technical faults in the military production, and as a result, they have not supplied any units of ammunition to Ukrainian defenders in accordance with the state order.
Based on the collected evidence, two heads of the companies have been informed of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (large-scale fraud). The investigation continues to hold all individuals involved in the scheme accountable. The perpetrators may face up to 8 years in prison
