the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine concluded a contract with Lviv Arsenal for the supply of mortar shots for the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the amount of UAH 1.4 billion. However, despite the full prepayment, the ammunition has not yet been delivered, and much of the money remains frozen in the accounts.
How the contract was concluded
In the fall of 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Lviv Arsenal signed a contract for the supply of 100 thousand mortar shots worth almost UAH 1.4 billion. The Slovak Company Sevotech performed in Croatia.
After all the inspections and approvals, on the basis of the decision of the working group, Alexander Liev, as a representative of the Ministry of Defense, and Yuriy Zbitnev, as the director of LLC "Lviv Arsenal", concluded a contract. However, at first this document did not provide for funds, and an additional financial agreement could only be signed after the Lviv Arsenal would provide a license for exporting weapons from Slovak company Sevotech.
After the Ministry of Defense received the necessary package of documents from the Lviv Arsenal, including the export license, and conducted the necessary inspections, on November 10, 2022 Liyev and Zbitnev signed an additional agreement on financial obligations. According to this document, the MOU should transfer the "Lviv Arsenal" subscription in the amount of UAH 1 340 465 698.
The first ammunition batch had to be brought to Ukraine on December 20, 2022. When it was not delivered, Alexander Liev began to send a claim to the Lviv Arsenal and demand to pay a fine for delayed and put ammunition. In general, MOU has sent “Lviv Arsenal” five claims, but the company did not respond to them and did not return the money.
The Ministry of Defense has tried to return the funds, but it has not yet been done, because most of them - UAH 818 million - arrested in criminal proceedings in the accounts of Lviv Arsenal. The other part of the funds is 30% of the amount transferred to the Lviv Arsenal accounts - the Ukrainian company transferred abroad as a prepayment.
Where Mow's money went abroad, it is not known for sure. However, according to investigative journalists, the part of the funds that Lviv Arsenal transferred to the Sevotech accounts was transferred to the Croatian company WDG Promet, owned by Matias Zubak.
“Loud” suspicions
At the end of January 2024, the case of non -compliance with the Ministry of Defense and Lviv Arsenal was gaining momentum. On January 27, 2024, the former MO Alexander Liev official was detained.
On the same day, the Security Service of Ukraine reported that it revealed the scheme of theft of public funds and five persons involved in criminal proceedings were suspected. Investigators believe that the persons involved have created a criminal group for the seizure of almost UAH 1.4 billion of the Defense Ministry.
Oleksandr Liev spent a month in a pre-trial detention center in the framework of this criminal proceedings, but he completely rejects any allegations and notes that there were no facts of corruption or official negligence in his actions.
Director of Lviv Arsenal Yuriy Zabitnev for a year and under house arrest, and in a pre -trial detention center, and on bail. Alexei Khoroshayev - co -owner of Slovak company Sevotech, who was to organize the delivery of ammunition to the order of the Lviv Arsenal, since September 2024 is in custody in the Czech Republic.
Over the year
During this year, law enforcement officers declared two more suspicions in the framework of criminal proceedings - the owner of the Croatian company WDG Promet Matias Zubak and a representative of Lviv Arsenal Oleg Yevdchenko, who was engaged in the search for suppliers.
It is important that the appearance of these new suspects may indicate a change in the direction of the investigation. If the focus was originally focused on the Ministry of Defense and the officials who concluded the contract, now the attention of law enforcement officers is shifting to those who directly received the funds but did not fulfill their obligations.
It is also known that prepayment under a contract that was to go to the purchase of ammunition remains frozen in the accounts of "Lviv Arsenal", which is almost one billion hryvnias. This means that the funds that could be used to purchase other weapons are still blocked.
Interestingly, the Ukrainian company "Lviv Arsenal" and the Slovak company Sevotech are referred to the Mow of official appeals, which claim that ammunition is available and can be delivered for the entire prepayment amount. Why these supplies have not yet taken place - remains an open question.
Alexander Lieva's position
Oleksandr Liev recently stated that after his release in 2022, his activities in the Ministry of Defense became the subject of careful inspections, including numerous searches, interrogations and polygraphs. He stressed that at the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine all contracts were concluded in conditions where suppliers demanded a complete prepayment and the department acted in a state of martial law.
According to him, for 2022 the Department of Military and Technical Policy, in which he worked since May 2022, concluded 435 contracts for the amount of UAH 519 billion. Of these, 385 contracts are fully executed, 32 are torn and refunded (or not paid), 18 - problematic contracts that are now considered in the commercial courts.
From the paid contracts, they were delivered during 2022-2024 for the amount of 98% of the total payment. These are contracts concluded in 2022, when no supplier even considered the supply without full prepayment, and the department was operating in CCP conditions. I am sure that the rest (2%) will be delivered or the state will return money with penalties and penalties (as well as contracts),
The investigation is now completed, the case file is open to read, which may indicate its approach to trial. At the same time, the question remains, could a delayed contract, ensuring the supply of ammunition of the Armed Forces, and not keeping so long blocked shots and money?
Law enforcement officers recently declared another suspicion of the former Ministry of Defense official Alexander Liev. Details of the case at the link.
Let's add
The other day the next wave of last year's litigation has risen. The Center for Combating Corruption posted a photo of Judge Yaroslav Zama, with a post, which, among other things, mentioned the case under the Lviv Arsenal and, in particular, Liev. The post emphasized that "… Skidin during the consideration of a request for a change of restraint, the extent of the Ministry of Defense, Alexander Liev, admitted the violation of the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as the Code of Judicial Ethics."
All these accusations were rejected by lawyer Andrew Slyusar.
The judge, in the administration of justice, is independent and guided by the rule of law (Article 129 of the Constitution). Criminal proceedings are carried out in compliance with the principle of the rule of law, according to which a person, his rights and freedoms are recognized as the highest values and determine the content and orientation of the activity of the state (Article 8 of the CCP),
The lawyer explained that at first the police handed suspicion to Alexander Liev under a corruption article, after which he was placed in a pre -trial detention center. However, SAP prosecutors later came to the conclusion that there were no signs of corruption in this case, and it should be transferred back to the police. When considering the issue of detention in Liev, the situation arose: he was not delivered from the pre -trial detention center, and prosecutors did not appear to the meeting. The judge, taking into account the situation, decided to hold a meeting online and examining all the documents made a decision to dismiss Liyev from the pre -trial detention center, since the prosecutor's office no longer saw the signs of corruption crime in the case.
Also, an open meeting of the Second Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice was held, at which the senior group of prosecutors in the said criminal proceedings, Mikhail Yurevich acknowledged that a change in the measure of restraint was not affected by Liev in any way on the course of the pre -trial investigation.
"Since the pre -trial investigation into the said persons was still completed and if we take Lieva specifically, the risks according to which precautionary measures were selected were not implemented - that is, it was not hidden during the investigation, there is also no data on the impact on the course of the pre -trial investigation," the prosecutor said.
