Ukraine accuses top defense official of embezzling $40 million
Ukrainian police have arrested a senior Defense Ministry official on suspicion of embezzling nearly $40 million as part of the fraudulent purchase of artillery shells for the Ukrainian military.
Ukrainian authorities have been working to clean up the ministry since reports of corruption and financial mismanagement in September led to the minister’s removal at the time. The Ukrainian security service announced Friday the arrest of the senior official, whose name was not released.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has also made fighting corruption one of his key wartime objectives, not only to reassure Ukraine’s Western allies that their billions of dollars in aid are not being siphoned off, but also to ensure an efficient allocation of resources while the country’s military is short of weapons and ammunition in its fight to repel Russian forces.
Ukrainian soldiers and commanders to have said in recent days that their lack of artillery shells has forced them to scale back some military operations and weakened Ukraine’s ability to withstand brutal Russian attacks.
“We can no longer move forward if we have nothing left to shoot,” Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on national security, defense and intelligence, said in an interview on Friday.
In the case announced Friday, Ukrainian prosecutors announced said in a statement that the Defense Department official had developed a system to purchase artillery shells at high prices.
In December 2022, they said, the official signed an agreement with a manufacturer for the purchase of a batch of artillery shells. The contract was later abandoned when a purchasing agency recently established by the ministry struck a new deal with the same manufacturer, cutting costs by 30 percent and significantly shortening delivery time by eliminating a foreign middleman.
But prosecutors say the official nevertheless extended the previous contract and transferred nearly 1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnias, about $40 million, to the foreign intermediary. Ukrainian authorities said the grenades had not yet been delivered and that the ministry was working to get the money back.
According to the Ukrainian security service, a preliminary investigation has been opened against the official, who has been relieved of his duties. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
This is not the first corruption scandal to hit Ukraine during the war. Last winter, two Defense Ministry officials were arrested over reports of purchasing overpriced eggs for the military.
Faced with mounting pressure to tackle misspending, Mr Zelensky replaced his defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, in September, although Mr Reznikov was not personally involved in the allegations of mismanaged contracts. Ukraine’s president also fired the heads of military recruitment agencies in August over allegations that some had taken bribes from people seeking to avoid military service.
So far, the revelations of mismanagement have not had a direct impact on foreign military and financial assistance to Ukraine. But they have fueled arguments from some U.S. lawmakers who refused to continue aid to Ukraine and demanded strict accountability for any deliveries. Congress last week again refused to approve a $50 billion security package for Ukraine, pushing back negotiations until next year.
Ukrainian officials argue that their persistence in investigating allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement demonstrates their willingness to tackle corruption even in the difficult conditions of war.
“This is an extremely important case in which anti-corruption mechanisms, the Ministry of Defense, have been working,” said Illarion Pavliuk, spokesperson for the ministry. said on national television.
Tackling corruption has also become a crucial issue as Ukraine moves forward with its application to join the European Union. The bloc’s leaders officially opened accession negotiations this month and stressed the need to continue efforts to strengthen anti-corruption mechanisms.
Fighting corruption was one of seven criteria the European Commission outlined last year as a condition for opening accession negotiations, which could take a decade or more. In his final review Given Ukraine’s progress, the committee said Kyiv should “continue to build a credible record of investigations, prosecutions and final judicial decisions in high-level corruption cases.”
Upon taking office in September, Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told the country’s parliament that there would be ‘zero tolerance for corruption’ within his government.
“Every hryvnia stolen costs the lives and safety of our soldiers,” he said.