They sold dozens of planes and air defence systems: three defence ministers of Yanukovych’s era suspected of high treason
Three former Ukrainian defence ministers of the Yanukovych era have been served with a notice of suspicion of high treason.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office, Censor.NET informs.
"From March 2010 to February 2014, during the suspects‘ tenure as Minister of Defence of Ukraine, decisions were made to alienate and sell combat-ready weapons and military equipment, the actual availability of which was below the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the statement said.
At their behest, it was unjustifiably sold:
- hundreds of armoured vehicles and artillery systems;
- dozens of units of anti-aircraft missile systems;
- hundreds of units of tracked and wheeled vehicles;
- dozens of combat aircraft and helicopters;
- one million pieces of small arms and ammunition of various calibres;
- thousands of missiles.
The PGO noted that these weapons were sorely lacking in the Ukrainian Defence Forces at the beginning of Russia's military aggression in February 2014 and until now.
"The illegal decisions of the suspects led to a decrease in the level of combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the defence capability of the state and caused serious consequences. By their actions, the former defence ministers damaged Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, defence capability, and state security, and also assisted Russia in conducting subversive activities against Ukraine," they said.
These are Mykhailo Yezhel, Dmytro Salamatin and Pavlo Lebedev.
