Ukraine
Two Defense Department officials among those arrested over a contract for mortar shells that never arrived
Sunday 28 January 2024 12.33pm GMT
Ukraine's security service SBU has arrested five people who allegedly tried to steal almost $40m (£31m) that was supposed to be used to buy grenades for the country's military in the war against Russia.
The SBU said on Saturday it had arrested two senior Defense Ministry officials. They allegedly conspired with the CEO of a little-known defense company, Lviv Arsenal, over a contract for 100,000 mortar shells. Another employee and a suspected accomplice were also arrested.
The ministry paid the amount in full in August last year. The company did not deliver any grenades and instead diverted some of the money to a bank account in the Balkans, it said. The SBU said it had charged five people. One was arrested while trying to flee the country. All face up to 12 years in prison.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has tried to crack down on corruption. His aim is to show that Ukraine is tackling the problem as it seeks to join the EU and NATO. Both blocs have called for comprehensive anti-corruption reforms.
Last September, Zelensky fired Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov after a series of scandals at the ministry. Although Reznikov was not personally involved in the crime, some of his officials were allegedly caught inflating contracts for the supply of food to the troops, including eggs.
Zelenskiy also fired the heads of regional military recruiting centers. They reportedly accepted bribes from men who wanted to avoid being sent to the front. He replaced Reznikov with Rustem Umerov, a Muslim Crimean Tatar. Umerov has vowed to root out corruption.
Since the Maidan Revolution in 2014, corruption in Ukrainian public life has been less noticeable than before. Civil society has also become intolerant of corruption at a time when soldiers are dying on the front lines and there is no end to the war in sight. Nevertheless, corruption persists.
The SBU said it would recover some of the stolen state money from the bank accounts of the Lviv Arsenal. Through “comprehensive measures,” the employees “documented the embezzlement plan and identified all people involved,” it said.
The arrests came as Russia carried out drone and missile strikes in four regions of Ukraine overnight, injuring at least three people, Ukrainian forces said.
According to the Air Force, eight Shahed explosive drones, two Iskander missiles and three S-300 missiles were fired, four of which were shot down.
According to the air force, civilian sites and “critical infrastructure” were attacked in the center of Poltava, in the east of Donetsk, in the southeast of Zaporizhzhia and in the center of Dnipropetrovsk.
The Donetsk prosecutor's office said a rocket hit a residential area in the city, causing injuries.
It said a 15-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man suffered cuts and bruises, while in a neighboring house a 30-year-old resident suffered head trauma.
Cities and towns near the sprawling front line in the east and south have been bombed daily in the nearly two years since Russia invaded, although Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting residential areas.
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