The SBU reported that they are checking five high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense and weapons suppliers.
The persons involved in the case are suspected under the article of the Criminal Code of misappropriation , embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of official position.
“ The attackers tried to steal almost 1.5 billion budget hryvnias to purchase 100 thousand mortar rounds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the security service said.
BBC Ukraine's sources in law enforcement agencies told us that among those involved is the infamous Oleksandr Liev, who was the head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Armament Development and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense.
Searches were also conducted at the current head of this department, Toomas Nakhur, and at the head of Lviv Arsenal, Yuriy Zbitnev.
As stated by the security service, one of the suspects in the case was detained while attempting to leave Ukraine and is currently in custody.
This is about the former head of the Department of the Ministry of Defense, Alexander Liev .
Liev himself denied both the accusations of the security forces and the fact that he tried to flee abroad.
In a Facebook post, he explained that he was on a business trip to Slovakia to inspect demining vehicles and planned to return to Ukraine by February 5.
According to the investigation, in August 2022, that is, when the war , officials signed a contract with the Lviv Arsenal for the purchase of a batch of artillery shells.
After receiving the money, the company's management transferred part of the funds to the balance of a foreign company that was to deliver the ordered ammunition to Ukraine.
Deliveries were supposed to begin in December 2022 and be fully completed by the end of February 2023, but as of the end of July, the Ministry of Defense had not received a single mine under the prepaid contract.
The company did not send a single projectile, and transferred the funds received to the accounts of an affiliated structure in the Balkans, investigators report.
The remaining amount remained in accounts in one of the Ukrainian banks.
The suspects face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Earlier this week, the appeals court upheld the decision to recover 1.5 billion hryvnias from Lviv Arsenal in favor of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Ukrainska Pravda wrote in its investigation last July that the Ministry of Defense had signed a contract with a little-known company, Lviv Arsenal.
The publication reported that Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who held this position in 2022, allowed an advance payment under the contract (almost 100% of the deal amount), but the Ukrainian military did not receive any mines under this contract.
Corruption remains one of the most pressing problems in Ukraine amid the war.
Just a week ago, law enforcement officers detained Roman, the son of Lviv businessman Igor Hrynkevich, in Odessa. He is considered the fifth member of a criminal organization suspected of supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with low-quality clothing worth UAH 1 billion. The other four suspects in this case were already in custody.
United States government cannot agree to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
In August, Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed regional military commissars due to significant abuses and corruption revealed in the work of the shopping center managers.
In 2022, Ukraine ranked 116th out of 180 countries in the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, conducted by Transparency International.
However, Ukraine is one of 10 countries that have been steadily rising in Transparency International's ranking over the past decade.
