Case of 120,000 defective mines: Public Anti-Corruption Council of Ministry of Defence demands to send professional management team to plant and find rest of suspects
Last week, the SSU detained the CEO of one of the largest state-owned defence plants in a case of supplying low-quality 120mm mortar mines to the army.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the Public Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defence.
As noted, the first deputy director of the plant and two employees of the Ministry of Defence (one of them former), who were responsible for checking the quality of mines and controlling the technological process, were also detained. This scandal is well known and the MoD Public Anti-Corruption Council has submitted statements of crime in this case to the NABU and the SBI with names and figures that cannot be publicly disclosed.
At the same time, the Public Anti-Corruption Council is reporting:
1. In the case of the purchase of low-quality mines, the number of detainees and suspects cannot be limited to the above four people. Someone gave the orders to sign new contracts for the supply of new batches of mines after the high-profile scandal, someone signed these contracts, someone lobbied for more and more transfers of public funds. All these "someones" should be named to the public by name.
2. Several corruption cases have long been opened against the plant's director by various law enforcement agencies. It is clear that corruption at a large production facility cannot be limited to the CEO and his deputy. However, no criminal cases have yet been opened against other top managers of the plant, and they have not been summoned for questioning (according to the Public Anti-Corruption Council as of today).
3. By and large, over the past year, a kind of pyramid scheme has been created around the plant. The plant was entrusted with the execution of a contract for the supply of ammunition, the papers were signed, and the plant failed to fulfil the order on time. Then the papers were rewritten, "addenda" were added to the old contracts to extend the contract term, and... a new contract was concluded for an even larger volume!
As of the time of the director's arrest, the plant owed the Defence Forces hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. This means that the army did not receive them in a timely manner, which in turn means that it cost us the lives of soldiers, territories, and civilian casualties.
The "pyramid scheme" described above had every chance of collapsing even without the detention of the long-time head of the plant. The volume of unfulfilled ammunition deliveries was increasing every month, and sooner or later this number would have become too much even for those who lobbied for more and more contracts with the plant.
But now, after the detention of the plant's manager, the "pyramid scheme" is likely to collapse within a very short time. As a rule, with a sharp change of management, especially a long-term one (and the current director has been running the plant since the last century), it will take up to a year or more for the new management to get to grips with all production processes, understand financial flows, including corruption, deal with accounting, revise contracts, reassure suppliers and bring in a new management team," the statement said.
It is also noted that the Defence Forces do not have this time.
"The Public-Anti-Corruption council of MoD, which has the figures and numbers of the contracts, has sent letters to the relevant departments and ministries demanding, among other things, that the plant immediately bring in a professional management team with experience in crisis management of enterprises, conduct an audit and urgent analysis of the plant's production capabilities (primarily the actual availability of powders), which should answer the question of the actual amount of ammunition that can be delivered to the Defence Forces of Ukraine within the timeframe specified in the contracts as soon as possible.
After a clear understanding of the gap between the volume of contracted supplies and the actual production capabilities of the enterprise, negotiations should be held with other manufacturers and suppliers of ammunition of the relevant calibres. Additional agreements to the existing contracts should reduce the amount of the plant's obligations with the return of the relevant funds so that they can be redistributed to meet the needs of the Ukrainian Defence Forces," the statement said.
If other manufacturers and suppliers are unable to provide the required amount of ammunition, a decision should be made to urgently purchase alternative munitions.
The letters sent by the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the MoD to the relevant agencies contain numbers, calibres and contract numbers that cannot be disclosed to the public.
The case of supplying defective mines to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
On 29 April 2025, the SSU detained the heads of a defence plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region that had supplied defective mines to the Armed Forces.
On 30 April, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv arrested Mykhailo Shkurenko, the former head of one of the military missions of the Ministry of Defence, and Yurii Yaresko, the head of the control group, without alternative bail. The court also detained Leonid Shyman, director of the Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, for two months without bail.
Faulty mines 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 mines 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 mines 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 mines, 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 mines.
