A case involving substandard spare parts for armored vehicles has been referred to court
The case involving the supply of substandard spare parts for armored vehicles, which caused the state losses of 126 million hryvnias, has been referred to court.
This was announced by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
The investigation established that the suspects organized the supply of substandard parts for military equipment. As a result, the state suffered significant financial losses.
Details
According to the investigation, at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a private company received two government contracts to manufacture components for the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ armored vehicles worth over 171 million hryvnias.
Specifically, these were engine cooling tubes for BMPs and other armored vehicles—components that are critical to their combat effectiveness.
"During the execution of the contracts, it turned out that some of the delivered products were substandard and did not comply with the technical documentation. Expert examinations confirmed that the spare parts could not be used for their intended purpose on armored vehicles. Moreover, they were sold to the defense ministry at significantly inflated prices," the statement reads.
The Ministry of Defense suffered losses amounting to 126 million hryvnias.
Who organized the scheme?
According to the prosecutor’s office, the scheme was organized by the director of the supplier company, who took advantage of simplified procurement procedures under martial law. To secure the government contract, he manipulated data regarding the company’s capacity and created the appearance of a monopoly and unique manufacturer of defense products.
"He then laundered the embezzled millions through shell companies and sole proprietorships, cashed them out, and spent them on luxury real estate and high-end cars. The total amount of transactions with signs of money laundering exceeds 73 million hryvnias.
"The embezzlement of budget funds was also made possible by the professional negligence of military officials responsible for logistics and material and technical support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They failed to verify the quality of the goods, approved inflated prices, and accepted defective products," said the Prosecutor General.
The case was investigated in stages. Previously, indictments were filed against a businessman and the head of the service for armaments, military equipment, and property of the special forces logistics unit of one of the Armed Forces’ military units.
Currently, prosecutors have submitted materials to the court regarding the third participant—the former head of the Central Directorate of the Logistics Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The entrepreneur is charged with organizing the embezzlement and misappropriation of another person’s property on a particularly large scale, as well as the legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means; the officials are charged with a military officer’s negligent attitude toward duty, which caused serious consequences under martial law.
Measures are ongoing to recover the losses incurred by the state.
