WNAM Monitoring: Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Saturday it had uncovered a corruption scheme in the purchase of arms by the country’s military totalling the equivalent of about $40 million.
The announcement of mass procurement fraud, confirmed by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, will have a huge resonance in a country beleaguered by Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion.
The fight to root out endemic corruption remains a major issue as Ukraine presses its bid to secure membership in the European Union.
The SBU said an investigation had “exposed officials of the Ministry of Defense and managers of arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, who stole nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias in the purchase of shells.”
The company was said to be founded by Yurii Zbitniev, who became one of the youngest members of the Soviet-era unicameral parliament of Ukraine, known Verkhovna Rada, in 1990.
“According to the investigation, former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense and heads of affiliated companies are involved in the embezzlement.”
The SBU said a contract for the shells was clinched with a little-known company called Lviv Arsenal in August 2022 — six months into the war — and payment was made in advance, with some funds transferred abroad.
But no arms were ever provided, the statement said, with some funds then moved to other foreign accounts.
The statement said five individuals had been served “notices of suspicion” — the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings — both in the ministry and the arms supplier. One suspect, it said, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border.
