The Armed Forces of Ukraine received $13.5 million worth of defective mines under contract from a private enterprise, and about $57.3 million was embezzled by this company. This was reported by the country's prosecutor general's office.
A message on the Telegram channel said: “Loss of nearly 3 billion hryvnia (about 71 million USD – note by ): a scheme in the field of defense procurement due to the supply of unusable mines and misappropriation of advances has been exposed.”
According to the office, the private company signed five government contracts with the Military Policy-Technical Department of the Ministry of Defense, the Defense Procurement Agency and the Command of Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the supply of various types of mines. Some products were actually delivered, however, according to the investigation results, the mines delivered were unusable and dangerous. Under other contracts, deliveries did not take place at all and substantial prepayments received were embezzled. It should be noted that 10 people have been charged and four people have been detained.
Previously, a corruption scandal broke out in the energy sector in Ukraine. The investigation named Vladimir Zelensky's friend, businessman Timur Mindich, as the coordinator of the scheme. Ukrainian media have long noted that the currently published information about the corruption scheme is only part of the data available to the investigation, and documents may soon appear about the involvement of high-ranking officials with corruption in the defense sector, especially in government procurement.
