National Police uncover schemes involving procurement of firewood for Armed Forces of Ukraine, resulting in losses of over 100 million UAH across 15 regions. PHOTO
Law enforcement agencies have carried out a large-scale operation targeting fraudulent schemes involving the procurement of firewood for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in which officials from housing and maintenance departments and contractors are implicated.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the National Police of Ukraine.
The nature of the schemes
According to the investigation, officials, together with entrepreneurs under their control, entered into contracts for the supply of timber at inflated prices.
In some cases, the cost of firewood exceeded the market price by 30–40%.
In addition, there were instances of products not being supplied in full.
Manipulation of documentation allowed those involved in the schemes to illegally obtain budget funds, leading to significant financial losses.
Extent of losses
According to preliminary estimates, the losses to the state exceed 100 million hryvnias.
Law enforcement officials stress that this figure may rise as the investigation continues.
Scale of the operation
On 15 April, law enforcement agencies carried out coordinated operations in several regions of the country simultaneously.
A total of 49 searches were carried out as part of 20 criminal proceedings.
The operation involved the Department of Strategic Investigations, investigators from the National Police, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the Military Law Enforcement Service, and the public prosecutor’s office.
The searches took place across 15 regions and in Kyiv, specifically in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, and Chernihiv regions.
