A former official from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and heads of defense enterprises were accused of supplying faulty missile launchers to the MoD, which cost Ukraine an estimated 90 million UAH.
On Monday, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced a pre-trial investigation into the former MoD official and heads of defense enterprises.
“All those who profit from the army will be held accountable and will receive a fair punishment,” Kravchenko wrote in a post on Telegram.
Kravchenko was appointed on June 17 by the Verkhovna Rada and is the youngest Prosecutor General in Ukraine’s history. He is originally from the temporarily occupied Luhansk region and a combat veteran of the ATO.
The criminal investigation was conducted by the main directorate of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
The names of the suspects and defense firms have not been made public.
Ukraine has struggled to combat corruption in its MoD, especially around the procurement of food, equipment, and weapons.
Combatting corruption in the defense sector takes on increasing importance as Ukraine’s parliament has just proposed a $10 billion increase in its defense budget.