Kyiv [Ukraine], January 29 : Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it has discovered a mass corruption scheme in the purchase of weapons amounting to nearly USD 40 million by the country's military, CNN reported.
According to the SBU, the embezzlement involved the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for Ukraine's Armed Forces in the fall of 2022.
Ukraine's Defence Ministry paid nearly all of the funds to arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, but the SBU said the ammunition was never received. It said that some of the funds had been transferred to foreign accounts, including in the Balkans.
The investigation found that former and current high-ranking defence officials, the head and chief commercial of Lviv Arsenal, and a representative of a foreign commercial group were involved in the fraud, as per CNN.
According to CNN, the uncovering of a mass corruption scheme will have consequences for Ukraine as it continues to resist Russia's unrelenting invasion while trying to navigate a path into the European Union, which has made combating corruption a precondition of Ukraine's future membership.
CEO of Lviv Arsenal Yurii Zbitnev told local media that the person responsible for the ammunition contract has been fired and that the company is working with the defence ministry to return the funds to the state so they can be "used for more appropriate purposes."
The SBU said five people have been indicted, and one of them, a former defence ministry official, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. It said authorities are working to detain other suspects and that those charged could face up to 12 years in prison.
Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Dmytro Klymenkov in a statement on Saturday said: "The Ministry of Defence continues to fight uncompromisingly against those who embezzle from weapons procurement. We have no place for corrupt officials."
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