Checks carried out at the Kyiv Armor Repair Plant by military prosecutors for the Ukrainian central region revealed that one T-72 tank, owned by the Defense Ministry, was missing, spokesman for the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office Yuriy Boichenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Aug. 11.
“The officials of this enterprise, abusing the powers of their office
in the period from 2013 through 2014, appropriated the T-72 tank, thus
causing nearly Hr 200,000 in losses to the state,” Boichenko said.
It was also found that there were attempts at the same plant to take possession of other defense ministry’s property, he said.
Officials at the armor repair plant “conducted refurbishment and
pre-sale preparation for yet another seven T-72 tanks worth in total one
and a half million hryvnias,” the spokesman said.
The company’s officials were planning to sell the military hardware on the foreign market, he added.
“Information about these criminal offenses was entered in the
Register of Pre-trial Investigation under Article 15 part three and
Article 91 part five of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, i.e. attempt to
misappropriate and misappropriation through abuse of office,” Boichenko
said.
T-72 was the main Soviet combat tank. It entered service in the USSR Armed Forces in 1973.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said T-72 tanks are not in service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
