Support our war crimes investigations unit Support
Skip to content

News Feed

Want to partner with the Kyiv Independent?
Contact the Tellers Agency to connect your brand with independent media.
Contact
2:40 AM
The home of famed Ukrainian painter Polina Raiko is under water as a result of the Kakhovka dam destruction, the project manager of the Polina Raiko Kherson Oblast Charitable Foundation Semen Khramtsov reported on Facebook.
Ukraine Daily
News from
Ukraine in your
inbox
10:53 PM
Yevhen Ryshchuk, the exiled mayor of the Russian-occupied Oleshky, Kherson Oblast, reported on the first victims of the Kakhovka dam disaster on June 7. According to the latest information, three people drowned.
9:02 PM
In its June report, the World Bank set Ukraine's GDP forecast for the following year at 2%, compared to 3.3% in January. The forecast reportedly worsened due to Russia's attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure at the end of 2022 and the departure of a significant part of the country's working demographic abroad.
MORE NEWS

watch us on facebook

Edit post

Media: Discrepancies persist in food procurement contracts for military

by The Kyiv Independent news desk March 18, 2023 12:53 AM 2 min read
This audio is created with AI assistance

Despite the Defense Ministry limiting contracts with food suppliers to the army from 12 to three months and lowering prices, investigators at Schemes found that food suppliers are still purchasing products at two to three times cheaper than what they sell them for to the Defense Ministry.

Journalists with Schemes, a project of Radio Svoboda, gained access to eight contracts between the Defense Ministry and private firms from December 2022 and compared the updates that were made to the contracts following the January scandal around inflated food prices.

The investigators discovered that the discrepancy in food prices created a potential profit margin between 30-70% for the army's food suppliers on multi-billion hryvnia projects.

The budget set by the Defense Ministry for purchasing food for the army was set at Hr 43 billion ($1.7 billion), Schemes journalists said.

Investigative Stories from Ukraine: Bihus.Info finds another Defense Ministry contract with inflated food prices

The news outlet ZN.UA released an investigative report in January claiming that the Defense Ministry was purchasing food for soldiers at prices that were higher than usual.

The report alleged that the Defense Ministry agreed to purchase eggs at a rate of Hr 17 ($0.46) per egg, which was significantly higher than the price of eggs in grocery stores in Kyiv, where they were sold for approximately Hr 7 ($0.19) per egg.

Likewise, a kilogram of potatoes to be ordered for Ukrainian soldiers cost Hr 22 ($0.60), while the price in Kyiv grocery stores was about Hr 9 ($0.24), ZN.UA reported.

After the scandal broke, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) stated on Jan. 23 that it had begun investigating possible corruption in the Defense Ministry’s food procurement.

Several Defense Ministry officials were dismissed from their positions following the scandal and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov pledged to reform the food procurement system.

Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight.
Freedom can be costly. Both Ukraine and its journalists are paying a high price for their independence. Support independent journalism in its darkest hour. Support us for as little as $1, and it only takes a minute.
visa masterCard americanExpress

Editors' Picks

Support us

Enter your email to subscribe

Please, enter correct email address

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.