A crackdown on corruption in Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has uncovered violations costing more than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to Kyiv.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that an internal audit of the ministry he heads found financial violations over the last four months worth 10 billion hryvnia—in the Ukrainian currency—or $260 million, as he vowed that authorities would “respond harshly to all cases.”
He said that reports about arrests and criminal charges are among changes to how the ministry operates “that will be noticed more and more frequently.”
Ukraine has applied to join the European Union and is particularly sensitive to claims of corruption especially given the wrangle on both sides of the Atlantic over its allies’ continued financial aid to fight Russia.
In September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Umerov following the resignation of Oleksii Reznikov after scandals involving inflated prices for food supplies and low-quality military jackets for troops fighting against Russia.
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Reznikov was not personally implicated in the claims but admitted in his resignation letter he had not effectively dealt with the scandals and that they were bad PR domestically.
In August 2023, Zelensky fired the heads of regional military recruitment centers who allegedly took bribes from those looking to avoid fighting and said that increased transparency in defense procurement would be one of Umerov’s tasks.
Umerov wrote in a Facebook post on Monday his Defense Ministry had been working with law enforcement agencies “to clean the system from unscrupulous participants—inside the institution and outside.”
He said that over the past month, the ministry had saved 3.5 billion hryvnia ($91 million) on purchases of non-lethal equipment. The ministry has also worked with Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) to eliminate a corruption scheme for the purchase of ammunition worth 1.5 billion hryvnia ($39 million).
Ukraine is looking at implementing a procurement program in line with NATO standards “to ensure the continued delivery of weapons and non-lethal supplies to the Armed Forces.”
“From now on, the Ministry of Defense sets the rules of the game, forms policies, controls the bids,” added Umerov, whose office Newsweek has contacted for comment.
It comes amid reports in Ukrainian media that Lviv businessman Ihor Hrynkevych was detained while allegedly trying to offer a $500,000 bribe to a State Bureau of Investigations official to return his companies’ property seized in a probe.
Hrynkevych’s companies are being investigated on army procurement violations with the State Bureau of Investigations finding only two out of 23 contracts to supply clothes for the military had been fulfilled, The Kyiv Independent reported.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.