Ukrainian Officials Investigated for 1.5 Billion Hryvnia Military Fund Scandal

23/01/2024 January 23, 2024, Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: Ukrainian soldiers repair the armoured personnel carrier in Orikhiv. The UK defence secretary Grant Shapps said its allies need to ‘step up’ the amount of military aid given to Ukraine. The finance minister of Germany has said it can’t keep up Ukraine’s defence capabilities on its own in the long term and that others will need to increase bilateral contributions.
POLITICA
Europa Press/Contacto/Andriy Andriyenko

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced late this past Saturday the beginning of an investigation into Defense officials, both retired and currently in office, in relation to the illegal appropriation of funds worth 1.5 billion hryvnias (36.8 million euros) for the purchase of 100,000 mortar shells. Six people are currently under investigation, one of them detained when she was trying to leave Ukraine, according to the statement published by the SBU on its website. Without naming names, the SBU speaks of “responsible for the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense” and the commercial director of a Ukrainian company involved in the acquisition, Lviv (Lviv) Arsenal, as well as its accomplice, a representative of a foreign trading company. According to the investigation, in which the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense itself has participated, these “former and current senior officials of the Ministry” tried to divert this amount for the acquisition of mortars that were part of a contract for the purchase of a lot wholesale of artillery shells with weapons supplier Lviv (Lviv) Arsenal. After receiving the funds, the company’s management transferred part of the money to the balance sheet of a foreign commercial structure that was to deliver the ordered ammunition to Ukraine. “However, this structure did not send a single artillery shell to our country and took the funds received underground, transferring them to the accounts of another affiliated structure in the Balkans,” according to the first results of the investigation. The stolen funds have already been seized and the process of returning them to the public coffers of Ukraine has now begun.

2024-01-28 10:49:33
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