While the Ukrainian military was losing people on the front lines due to faulty ammunition, a stable commercial scheme for the supply of components for mortar shells was operating in the rear. According to the materials of criminal proceedings No. 42016040010000006, businessman Bohdan Pukish organized the supply of low-quality parts for the production of mortar shells through the controlled enterprise of PE “VESTKHIM”. These are bodies, covers, cuvettes and sleeves, which were supplied to the state defense enterprise “NVO “PKhZ”” at inflated prices and without compliance with safety requirements and quality standards.
For the period from 2022 to 2025, the volume of such supplies exceeded UAH 667 million. For individual items alone, the overpayment amounted to more than UAH 43 million excluding VAT — this is taxpayers' money that was supposed to go to the combat readiness of the army, but instead turned into the profit of a private structure.
The mechanics of the scheme looked like this: PE “VESTKHIM” supplied “PKZ” with metal mine elements made of cheap, uncertified raw materials that did not comply with technical documentation and state standards. Some of the cases had deviations from the design parameters, in some cases materials with lower strength were used. The supply of cases of “high-explosive fragmentation mine of steel cast iron “M-120”” in the amount of 98,960 pieces was recorded for the amount of 478,698,800 UAH excluding VAT. The price per unit “walked” from 5,540 UAH to 4,500 UAH depending on the delivery period, which gave reason to speak not about the market, but about deliberate manual pricing.
This economy directly kills. Defective mortar ammunition assembled from such parts behaved unpredictably. The military at the front complained that some of the mines simply remained in the barrel after firing, while others exploded at too short a distance from the positions. This created a mortal danger for the mortar crews and led to the loss of weapons and equipment. In a number of cases, it is not that the weapon “did not work”, but that it posed a threat to its own fighters. These incidents were systematically recorded by the military, who passed on the information to law enforcement agencies.
Against this background, PE "VESTKHIM" allowed itself another level of earnings - price arithmetic. According to the contracts, the same nomenclature of parts (for example, sleeves) was sold to different customers at different prices. For one state-owned enterprise, the cost of a sleeve was 171 UAH per piece, while for another - 160 UAH. Such "fluctuations" on this item alone led to an overpayment of more than 3.19 million UAH of budget funds. This indicates not production risks or logistics, but the manual distribution of money between controlled units.
Formally, this story is about low-quality spare parts. In essence, it is about a crooked defense company that can kill its own people and destroy trust in government procurement in wartime.
In April 2025, the SBU reported the detention of two managers of the state enterprise “NVO “PKhZ”” and two officials of the Ministry of Defense, who were responsible for accepting products. They were placed under preventive measures. According to the SBU, the goal was “to reduce the cost of production and increase profits from state orders,” in fact accepting low-quality products into the army.
But there is a critical point: the supplier link — those who manufactured and imported these parts — has still not been fully inspected. Despite the fact that it is the supplier who is responsible for the quality of the metal, certification, final testing, and compliance with technical specifications, official suspicions were first raised by the receivers at the state-owned enterprise, and not by those who issued invoices, inflated prices, and brought in defective parts. This creates a risk that responsibility will remain local and “burn out” at the plant management level, while the scheme as a whole will not be dismantled.
Separate attention should be paid to the political connections of businessman Bohdan Pukish. According to open data, he was linked to Viktor Medvedchuk's structure, which could provide him with both access to defense contracts and protection from the reaction of law enforcement agencies. It is this connection that may be the reason for the strange slowdown in the investigation, despite the available materials and statements directly from people who worked with these ammunition at the front.
According to military personnel and volunteers, law enforcement agencies tried to ignore the problem even when soldiers officially applied and reported dangerous Ukrainian-made mortar mines. Individual appeals to the SBU, police, and the specialized defense prosecutor's office either remained without any real action or were accompanied by replies. In some cases, servicemen were even denied victim status.
The supply of substandard ammunition components is not just about economics. It is about the survival of specific units. Every defective mine case is a potential accidental detonation near the position. Every hryvnia “saved” on metal is a risk that the mortar crew will not return from the position.
It is also about the country's defense reputation. Ukraine is at war, and how it controls its own weapons is a matter not only of domestic corruption, but also of the international trust of partners who provide weapons and money.
