Kyiv [Ukraine], February 5: On February 3 (local time), The Kyiv Independent published detailed results of an investigation into a corruption network in purchasing weapons and equipment for Ukraine's counter-offensive campaign.
Accordingly, a number of officials of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense were discovered to have embezzled a total of 1.5 billion hryvnia (about 40 million USD) to spend on the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds to support front-line forces. By February 2023, combat units should have received all of the above ammunition, including the defense army of Bakhmut City. However, not a single artillery shell was delivered during the period when the Ukrainian army faced a peak weapons shortage.
The Ukrainian units defending Bakhmut faced an extremely difficult situation while confronting Russian forces. Some artillerymen recounted receiving only 10 mortar shells each day, enough to last a few minutes. Up to now, the total number of casualties on the Ukrainian side on the Bakhmut front is still unknown, but one unit revealed that it had reduced its troops by half in about 2 months.
Russia successfully controlled Bakhmut in May 2023.
The police are investigating five people suspected of participating in a corruption ring , including suspects Oleksandr Liyev and Toomas Nakhkur, who are respectively the former head of the department and head of the weapons purchasing department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The case file was submitted to many departments during the period when Mr. Oleksiy Reznikov was Minister of Defense of Ukraine, but to no avail. The investigation was only conducted after Mr. Reznikov left this position in September 2023.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
