Fictitious demining worth 49 million hryvnias: six participants in the scheme have been charged. PHOTOS
Under the procedural supervision of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office, six individuals have been notified that they are under suspicion of misappropriating public funds allocated for the humanitarian demining of agricultural land.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing the press centre of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
What did the investigation establish?
It is noted that in 2024–2025, a group of interconnected companies took part in tenders for the demining of land in the Chernihiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. After signing contracts with the Centre for Humanitarian Demining, the contractors were supposed to clear the fields of explosive ordnance; however, in reality, they merely pretended to carry out the work and entered false information into official documents regarding the territories that had allegedly been cleared.
‘Demining’ in the Mykolaiv region
A separate case concerns the Mykolaiv region, where 49.2 million hryvnias were unjustifiably transferred from the state budget for the fictitious demining of land.
Suspicions have fallen on the heads of two Kyiv-based companies that carried out humanitarian demining work, as well as three heads of demining teams and the head of an agricultural enterprise who signed the certificates of completion. According to the investigation, they were fully aware that no actual demining was taking place, yet they facilitated the preparation of documents regarding the allegedly completed work.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers recorded conversations between the suspects in which they discussed the lack of proper supervision over the work being carried out. Their intentions to plant objects resembling munitions or parts thereof in certain areas, in order to pass them off as finds during demining operations, were also documented.
The investigation established that the deminers merely remained in the vicinity of the allegedly mined fields, but did not carry out any actual work to clear the areas.
What led up to this?
- Earlier, in April 2026, as part of the same criminal proceedings, charges were brought against the director of a Kyiv-based mine clearance operator and the head of a team of deminers in connection with the fictitious demining of land in the Kherson region, which resulted in 6.3 million hryvnias being unlawfully paid out from the budget.
- The investigation is ongoing. Similar cases of embezzlement during humanitarian demining operations in other regions of Ukraine are being investigated.
