The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Polish law enforcement services conducted searches in Poland and Ukraine regarding a suspected weapons procurement corruption scheme, the bureau's press service said on April 9.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine's Defense Ministry has been involved in several corruption scandals, namely related to the defense procurement.
The newly uncovered case supposedly concerns weapons purchases at inflated prices between April 2022 and February 2023, according to the bureau's statement.
Law enforcement agencies have investigated arms supply chains and suspected inflation of prices through intermediary companies registered outside of Ukraine. The investigation is ongoing, according to the bureau.
The searches were carried out thanks to the cooperation between the NABU, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), Ukraine's Defense Ministry, and the Polish Police.
Ukraine's two most notorious public procurement scandals, which concerned inflated prices for food supplies and low-quality winter jackets, prompted the dismissal of former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
In December 2023, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov introduced the state enterprise Defense Goods Procurement Agency, a new procurement agency for Ukraine's Armed Forces, to counter corruption and the misuse of funds related to food procurement for the military.
Later on, Ukraine's Defense Ministry implemented a new procurement system according to the NATO anti-corruption standards.
Abbey Fenbert
