High-Ranking Ukrainian Defense Ministry Officials ‘Exposed’ in $40 Mln Corruption Case

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has searched houses and offices of Ministry of Defense (MoD) officials and managers at the Lvov Arsenal arms supplier who they claim are involved in a massive corruption scheme.

The SBU said in a statement that an investigation had “exposed” the officials and managers, who are accused of stealing almost 1.5 billion hryvnias (more than $40 million) in the purchase of nearly 100,000 mortar shells that never reached the country.

Five individuals from the MoD and Lvov Arsenal have reportedly been served “notices of suspicion” (the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings), while one suspect has been detained trying to cross the country’s border, according to the SBU.
The Ukrainian Security Service stated that the “documentation of the crime” took place with the assistance of the country's current Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. According to the investigation, former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense were also involved in the scheme.

The suspects include former and current heads of the MoD's department for military-technical policy, the Lvov Arsenal's head and commercial director, as well as a representative of a foreign company. Investigators are currently determining a preventive measure for the remaining defendants in the case who face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.