Ukraine uncovers $40 million embezzlement

2024-01-28 15:51:00

Ukrainian military officials and business leaders embezzled $40 million in an arms purchase at the start of the war launched by Moscow, the SBU, the country’s main intelligence and security agency, has revealed.

The embezzlement occurred in August 2022, six months following the Russian invasion of the country, as part of the purchase abroad of 100,000 mortar shells which were never delivered, according to an SBU press release released during the night from Saturday to Sunday. The funds (1.5 billion hrvynias) had in reality been embezzled by officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Lviv Arsenal company, mandated for the purchase, with the complicity of a foreign company, according to this source.

One of the suspects in custody

« A senior official from the Ministry of Defense and sour predecessor, the director and sales manager of a Ukrainian company as well as the representative of a foreign company were notified of a notice of suspicion », Specified the general prosecutor’s office. One of the suspects is in custody following being arrested “ during an attempt to leave Ukraine », indicated the SBU.

The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, the SBU and the prosecutor’s office emphasized. Several corruption cases have emerged in Ukraine since the outbreak of war in February 2022, particularly within this ministry. In August 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed all regional officials in charge of military recruitment, due to exemptions granted for remuneration. The fight once morest corruption is one of the major conditions set by the Twenty-Seven to Ukraine as part of its application for membership in the European Union.

Russia carries out new nighttime drone and missile attack on four regions of Ukraineleaving at least three injured, including a teenager, the Ukrainian armed forces said on Sunday. During his wishes to the army, Emmanuel Macron deplored a “form of satisfied numbness”, who won the sector before the invasion in Ukraine and called on it to develop “faster and stronger production capacity” to continue supporting kyiv.