The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine plans to purchase 300,000 120-mm mines from a state-owned manufacturer, despite the fact that the company has not fulfilled previous contracts. The Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine warns that such purchases could jeopardize the supply of ammunition to the front and lead to another scandal.
This situation was drawn to the attention of military expert Serhiy Zgurets, who reported that the Ministry of Defense is going to work again with an enterprise that has already had problems with fulfilling a state order.
According to the Public Anti-Corruption Council, the problem is that the Ministry of Defense is concentrating orders on one manufacturer, which has already demonstrated its inability to fulfill previous contracts. Although the details of the deals are not disclosed due to the secrecy regime, anti-corruption activists say that this scheme jeopardizes stable supplies of ammunition to the front.
The Defense Ministry's GAR has repeatedly drawn attention to this problem, but there has been no reaction from the defense ministry's leadership. As a result, the council decided to go public to draw attention to the situation.
Earlier it became known that some of the 120-mm mines manufactured by state-owned enterprises were found to be of poor quality. Minister for Strategic Industries German Smetanin said that the problem lies in the powders used to manufacture the ammunition. However, according to other sources, the manufacturer used the wrong fuses – from tank shells instead of those intended for mortars. As a result, the mines simply did not explode.
The Ministry of Strategic Industries has already acknowledged a shortage of 24,000 mines, a significant portion of which had to be replaced. However, the problem has not been resolved, and the Ministry of Defense continues to order ammunition from the same manufacturer.
The Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Ministry of Defense appealed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters with a demand to diversify procurement - that is, distribute orders among several manufacturers in order to avoid dependence on a single supplier.
Activists also demand:
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Conduct an investigation into the supply of substandard mines;
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Publish the number of ammunition that was returned due to defects;
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Identify and hold accountable the officials who committed these violations.
In addition, the GAR of the Ministry of Defense has already filed a statement with law enforcement agencies, which concerns possible criminal actions by officials responsible for interaction with manufacturers.
Military expert Serhiy Zgurets emphasizes that the issue of supplying ammunition to the front is not just a bureaucratic problem, but a matter of survival for Ukrainian soldiers. After all, if defective mines fall into the combat zone, this can lead to tragic consequences.
"The situation will continue, and media structures will monitor the events related to this order. Because while defense enterprises supply defective mines, our soldiers on the front line are forced to compensate for this with their courage," Zgurets concluded.
