KYIV, Ukraine — Workers from a Ukrainian arms agency conspired with protection ministry officers to embezzle virtually $40 million earmarked to purchase 100,000 mortar shells for the warfare with Russia, Ukraine’s safety service reported.
The SBU mentioned late Saturday that 5 individuals have been charged, with one individual detained whereas attempting to cross the Ukrainian border.
If discovered responsible, they resist 12 years in jail.
The investigation comes as Kyiv makes an attempt to clamp down on corruption in a bid to hurry up its membership within the European Union and NATO.
Officers from each blocs have demanded widespread anti-graft reforms earlier than Kyiv can be a part of them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2019, lengthy earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Each the president and his aides have portrayed the current firings of prime officers, notably that of Ivan Bakanov, former head of the State Safety Service, in July 2022, as proof of their efforts to crack down on graft.
Safety officers say that the present investigation dates again to August 2022, when officers signed a contract for artillery shells value 1.5 billion hryvnias ($39.6 million) with arms agency Lviv Arsenal.
After receiving cost, firm workers had been alleged to switch the funds to a enterprise registered overseas, which might then ship the ammunition to Ukraine.
Nonetheless, the products had been by no means delivered and the cash was as an alternative despatched to numerous accounts in Ukraine and the Balkans, investigators mentioned.
Ukraine’s prosecutor common says that the funds have since been seized and might be returned to the nation’s protection funds.
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