Case of 120,000 faulty mortar shells: court orders detention of two former Defense Ministry officials without bail
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has imposed pre-trial detention without the option of bail on Mykhailo Shkurenko, former head of a Defense Ministry military representative office, and Yurii Yaretsko, head of a quality control group.
As reported by Censor.NET, this was announced by the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Detention without the right to bail
Investigative judge Volodymyr Buhil of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the motion filed by an SSU investigator and imposed pre-trial detention without the option of bail on Mykhailo Shkurenko, former head of a Defense Ministry military representative office, and Yurii Yaretsko, head of a quality control group.
Also under investigation:
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Leonid Shyman, director general of the defense plant
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Oleksii Kyrychenko, his first deputy
The court is currently considering preventive measures for these two suspects.
What did the investigation uncover?
According to the investigation, in 2024, the management of a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region signed a contract with the Defense Procurement Agency for the production of ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enterprise was to supply bulk batches of 120 mm mortar rounds worth over UAH 11 billion.
An expert examination revealed that the manufacturing process involved a powder mixture, including one component that was not intended for use in 120 mm mortar charges. This resulted in unstable charge performance. In addition, the primer caps were found to have defects that caused misfires.
Despite being aware of these issues, the suspects continued production in order to profit from the state contract.
Officials from the military acceptance office, who were involved in the scheme, failed to carry out proper quality control and submitted false data in official reports.
As a result, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received more than 120,000 defective rounds, which had to be withdrawn from the front line — significantly undermining the combat capability of the Defense Forces.
Case of supplying faulty mortar shells to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
On April 29, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine detained the managers of a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region that supplied faulty mines to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Faulty mortar shells supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
On November 6, 2024, it was reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine received a low-quality batch of 120 mm mortar shells manufactured by Ukroboronprom.
On 20 November, a video of mines manufactured by "Ukroboronprom" malfunctioning was released.
The Ministry of Defence said it was investigating the situation.
Also, journalist Yuliia Kyrienko-Merinova said that after the situation with the low-quality 120mm mortar shells was publicised, a batch of 82mm mortar rounds, which also turned out to be defective, was recalled from the frontline.
On December 6, Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine Herman Smetanin told the Verkhovna Rada that out of millions of mines produced, the military had recorded only 417 cases of malfunction. Smetanin attributed the problems with mines to the quality of imported gunpowder.
On December 31, it became known that low-quality mortar shells had appeared in the units in the Vremivka direction, near Velyka Novosilka.
On January 9, 2025, Butusov stated that after the publication of the article about the faulty mortar shells, the 151st Brigade received quality ammunition.
The Command of the Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the soldiers of the 151st Separate Mechanised Brigade did not receive low-quality mortar shells.
