Ukrainian defense officials and corporate leaders sought to steal about US$40 million through a fraudulent arms procurement scheme, the country’s main intelligence and security agency said on Saturday.
The corruption allegations were confirmed by Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which has served implicated officials with notices of suspicion.
They come as Republicans in the US resist President Joe Biden’s efforts to send more aid to Ukraine, and as former US president Donald Trump, who has spoken out against US military support for Kyiv, appears to be on a glide path to the Republican nomination. Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that current and former senior officials of the defense ministry and heads of affiliated companies “attempted to steal almost 1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia [US$40 million] from the budget by purchasing 100,000 mortar rounds for the [Ukranian] Armed Forces.”
Photo: AP
They allegedly signed a contract to buy the shells from the arms supplier Lviv Arsenal in August 2022, after which the defense ministry “transferred the full amount stipulated in the signed document to the company’s accounts.”
From there the funds went to a foreign commercial entity that was supposed to deliver the ammunition but “not a single artillery shell” was ever sent to Ukraine, the SBU said.
Officials accused of participating in the scheme include the current and former heads of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Armaments and Military Equipment, as well as the head of Lviv Arsenal.
One of the suspects was detained by the SBU while attempting to leave Ukraine and is currently in custody. According to Ukrainian prosecutor general, the stolen funds have been seized and are to be returned to the defense budget.
Ukraine has weathered a series of corruption scandals in the past few months, including several others within the defense ministry.
In August last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sacked all the officials in charge of military recruitment across the regions to end a system in which some people were being allowed to escape conscription.
Reining in corruption is one of the conditions the EU has set for Ukraine as it seeks membership.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS