Prosecutor General's Office and SBI uncover scheme of supply of defective mines to Armed Forces worth billions of hryvnias

The Prosecutor General's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation have uncovered a scheme to supply the Armed Forces with defective mines worth billions of budget hryvnias.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has announced this, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

One of the supplier companies signed five large contracts with the Department of Military and Technical Policy of the Ministry of Defense, the Defense Procurement Agency and the Command of the Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for more than UAH 10 billion. Under these contracts, more than 360,000 sets of mines of various types were to be supplied.

The result was different: neither full-fledged mines nor public money.

The investigation found that the first is a dangerous defect. A significant part of the mines delivered is unusable: they have an underestimated explosive content, do not meet technical specifications and often do not work at all.

The second is the missing advances. Most of the products were simply not delivered at all, although the state transferred advance payments. These funds were used to purchase third-party equipment, which was later re-registered to other companies.

At the moment, the established amount of losses is UAH 2 billion 994 million, including

- UAH 571.3 million - the cost of defective mines;

- UAH 2.423 billion - appropriated prepayment.

10 people have already been notified of suspicion, including the management of the supplier company, accountants and officials of military missions. Four suspects have been detained.

The Prosecutor General's Office will insist on keeping them in custody with an alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 100 to 500 million.

Additional examinations are currently underway

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the management of a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk Region was detained for supplying defective mortar shells to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.