Yurii Butusov: Minister Smetanin’s lies about faulty mines
The entire broadcast is devoted to a glaring issue, a high-profile scandal that is, in fact, one of the most severe state crimes—crimes against Ukraine’s defense and the Ukrainian army.
This includes the production of 120-mm and 82-mm mortar shells. In 2024, the state allocated a record amount of UAH 25 billion for the production of mortar shells in Ukraine. This is significant money, this is the money we need, and the decision to build in Ukraine, to use Ukrainian production, is the right decision, a state decision that, in principle, should be welcomed. But, unfortunately, the implementation of this is just a direct crime, and this crime is continuing right now.
There was a loud scandal, this information was first made public by us, on the Censor.NET website, on my YouTube telegram channel, I published information that was passed to me by soldiers from the front, that the new 120-mm mines made in Ukraine, which are being massively supplied to the front, do not work. This was followed by a loud reaction, and there were several statements, unfortunately, Defense Minister Umierov was absent from these statements, I called him Mr. Cellophane on the air then, and he remains Cellophane now. Oddly enough, the Minister of Defense did not interfere in the situation with the supply of mines to the Ukrainian army, and did not comment in any way on the complete criminal incapacity of the military acceptance office, which did not check these mines, and even after they were supplied to the front, the Ministry of Defense did not pay attention to the fact that they handed over low-quality ammunition to the army operating at the front. The two criminal cases opened by the SBI are based solely on my publication.
I talked to the investigators, a case was opened, and the whole case is based on the fact that I made a statement. But in fact, why did I make it? Because the state authorities did not respond to all the signals that the mines were of poor quality in the prescribed manner. This resulted in a loud scandal.
More than 20 military units filed complaints with the manufacturer, leading to the mines being withdrawn. After that, on December 6, the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Minister for Strategic Industries, Herman Smetanin, who succeeded his predecessor, Oleksandr Kamyshin—now an advisor to the president—continued the program Kamyshin had lobbied for while serving as the minister. Currently, the program is being implemented by Smetanin, who is also closely associated with Kamyshin. For some reason, Smetanin appeared in the Verkhovna Rada, but instead of holding a press conference, he gathered journalists for an off-the-record conversation. This means that his words cannot be officially quoted or used. However, after speaking in the Rada, Smetanin made a public statement on his channel, claiming that everything was fine, that the mines had been removed, and the situation was now under control. In reality, everything is far from fine; Smetanin's words turn out to be false.
Videos of the firing tests were sent to us by several military units. We received footage from four different units, and TSN journalists, including Yuliia Kyriienko-Merinova, covered reports from two more.
A few fragments. "Two fell into the field and didn’t work. They didn’t have enough power to eject, so they just stayed in the barrel. One is sticking out. Here’s the first one. The second. The third. The fourth. There’s a fifth one still in the barrel." "So, this mine, with this marking and another marking, gives us a blind shell. Both on these B-429s and M-12s, they come with standard propelling charges. They all have a good ignition, but they don’t function properly. A lot of failures to fire occur, requiring us to remove the mine from the barrel and disassemble the mortar every time. For the ones that do fire, the propelling charge often results in a significant misfire. It’s unclear why, but it seems to me that the propelling charge itself is of poor quality. We replaced the gunpowder because the original gunpowder—those pigtails—is native to this mine. If you fire with them, the mine falls 50 meters from the mortar, sometimes 10 meters. These fuses don’t ignite properly with these propelling charges. They replaced the powder, and now the mine flies as it should, but the propelling charges often still cause failures to fire. Out of 10 shots, only one detonates; the rest don’t explode. The mine does not explode. My opinion is that the TNT inside is of poor quality, which is why there’s no detonation. We’ve even placed plastid under the fuze, but still no detonation. The issue is with the mine itself, specifically the TNT. It would be advisable to check the batches for the quality of the TNT filling. It would also be preferable if more propelling charges came in the kit because there are so many failures to fire. We’re running low on propelling charges and actively searching for more. Right now, the kit only includes one propelling charge per mine."
"It's the fall of 2024, November 17, and we’ve been facing the same problem for days, even weeks. We started working with mines for the 120mm mortar, and unfortunately, it's a complete mess. To give you an understanding of what a mine is: In the box, there are two mines, the so-called firing set. Here’s the mine. The manufacturer is, I believe, 888—I'm not sure which plant it is. It’s a high-explosive fragmentation round made of M120 cast iron. Year of manufacture: 10th year, 10th month, 24th day. Batch number 17. Then the same for the fuze, batch number 51. Main charge 35-24, additional charge 27-24. What does this mean? This is the additional charge. These are bundles of gunpowder that help the mine travel further. Here is the fuze, which detonates the mine upon impact. There are two of them in the box. Additionally, there are 2 sets of gunpowder bags, 6 pieces in each. There are also 2 propelling charges, which resemble hunting cartridges."
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This illustrates that the situation is problematic. We received videos from at least 6 military units. But in reality, there are many more. The situation with the mines has not been resolved. Minister Smetanin reacted to this video, but first, we will show how the army reacted to it. In other words, a ban was issued on the use of 120mm mortar rounds from certain batches. 'Prohibit the use of 120mm mortar rounds containing propelling charges'—these are the batches in question: 27-24, 17-24, 17-24, 12-24, 35-24, additional propelling charges, main propelling charges. In other words, the army issued the ban after the scandal had already begun. Unfortunately, this ban wasn’t issued immediately but only around November 20. I released the video on November 6, investigations and criminal cases began, and on the 20th, the ban was finally issued. But we see that these are not all the batches. There are actually many more. A large number of batches. Which batches were affected by the ban? Let’s take a look at the table: Batches 10-24, 15-24, 17-22, 22-23, 36-37, 38-39. A huge number of batches of mines. These refer to the charges of these mines, batches that didn’t detonate. And what happened next? After the ban and the criminal case were initiated, Minister of Defence Umierov stayed silent, presidential advisor Oleksandr Kamyshin, who organized all this, the quality of production, he remained silent, said nothing. Only Smetanin spoke publicly, he went to the Rada.
TSN journalist Yuliia Kyriienko-Merinova revealed that 82mm mines have also started to be withdrawn from the front. Complaints have begun, Kyriienko published data on the 82mm mines. Additional batches of 25-24 charges, and here too, the mines do not work. This was followed by a strong reaction in the media and an article was published in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, where journalist Yurii Nikolov wrote under the headline: "The Scandal with 120mm Mines for the Armed Forces: Anatomy of Betrayal."
It describes the whole situation in detail. I strongly recommend reading this article, as it is indeed an act of high treason, but it turned out that the issues with organizing mine production were anticipated in advance. That is, the mines contain low-quality components, which the soldiers mentioned in the video. And we can see that all of this was foreseen. There were documents, initial refusals by the military to accept the mines or organize production with these components, but, you know, as in Soviet times, the party said 'it must be done.' Minister Kamyshin, who is now an advisor to the president and even closer to decision-making in the state, and his successor, Minister Herman Smetanin, approved all of this and continue to approve it. The reaction from the authorities to this crime has been very restrained. No blocking of the tribunes, no investigations, no parliamentary commissions. The Minister of Strategic Industry, Herman Smeitanin, came to the Rada after an off-the-record meeting with journalists, which we cannot transmit because it is an off-the-record meeting, and we cannot publish data from it with reference to the minister. And here is what Smetanin said in the Rada. "As of now, two criminal proceedings have been opened, investigative actions and internal checks are underway. In total, Ukrainian defense enterprises have supplied millions of artillery and mortar rounds to the defense forces since the beginning of 2024. They have been scaling up production and introducing new technologies at the fastest possible pace. As a conclusion of the current situation, quality control over both imported and manufactured products has been strengthened at all production facilities.
Minister Smetanin's words are really just a direct sign of his involvement in a criminal group that supplies mines of known poor quality to the front. And Minister Smetanin must be held accountable for his statement, which is absolutely false, and he must be held criminally liable for this lie. Because there is a war going on, and when a person says such things in response to a scandal, after studying the video and the facts, this is not really an attempt to correct the situation. This is an attempt to hide the truth and cover up the crime. And to remove from criminal responsibility those criminals who planned this production and who continue to supply the army with low-quality, defective mines that do not fire.
Low-quality, defective mines continue to be supplied to the army. And the Minister of Strategic Industry Smetanin, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Umierov, the Presidential Advisor on Defense Industry Kamyshin, and I am sure the entire Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff are well aware of this. On December 6, on the day of the Armed Forces, Smetanin came out with his false statement, although I want to tell you that before this statement, and after this statement, and right on the day of this statement, the leadership of the Armed Forces receives from military units and continues to receive numerous complaints, numerous statements that all the mines that Smetanin continues to supply are not a separate batch of 24,000, they are all completely defective.
"I want to show you a report from one of the military units that is currently on the front line, directly carrying out combat missions and trying to hold back the Russian advance. 'I hereby report that on December 4 (i.e., two days before Smetanin's speech to the Rada - YB), special training sessions were conducted with live firing of 120-82 mm mortar batteries. The head of the joint fire training department supervised the firing. He observed that during fire missions performed by mortar crews armed with 120-mm mortars of Turkish manufacture, 12 mines used for firing failed to detonate when they hit the ground. These were high-explosive fragmentation rounds with M120 steel cast iron mines. Batch number 90, manufactured in October 1924. B-429 fuze. The charge is such and such". So, now I want to show you the packing list for this defective batch of mines. The product names are clearly stated. Batch number 90, fuze number, and batch number of charges 22-24. What does this mean? What were the soldiers doing at the front?" They received mines for which there have already been numerous complaints from other parts of the front. These mines were sent to one of the main sectors of the Russian military's assault, where they deployed their units and mortar batteries. However, due to the many reports that these mines were malfunctioning, they decided to test them. They took 12 mines from the batch that had been supplied to this military unit. Not a single mine worked. 100% defective. Not a single one detonated. They fired 12 rounds because there was no point in wasting resources. There’s no point in wasting dummy rounds. The barrel’s lifespan is wasted shooting defective ammunition. I want to clarify that the delivery was not 24,000 out of 54,000, as Minister Smetanin falsely stated. That’s a complete lie. All these mines do not work properly. They don’t meet their specified performance standards, and they don’t hold up during firing. These mines haven’t been replaced. And the other batches, the ones not mentioned by Smetanin, are also malfunctioning. I don’t even want to reveal the specific front-line area. There was a massive malfunction in one of the frontline areas when the problems with mines started. All military units filed complaints asking to withdraw all the mines. But all the mines were not withdrawn. Because Minister Smetanin had to lie that some mines were working well. So, if Minister Smetanin is responsible for his words, he should indicate to the military, write to the military unit, and tell them which mines are working properly. Where are his landmines working? Here's another batch where they don't work. Neither charges, nor fuses, nor mines explode. Even after hitting the ground, as it is written. And these shots were specifically made under the direction of officers who are responsible for the precise fulfillment of all the conditions for organizing the shooting in a clear, appropriate manner. So that the charges are not dry, and everything is controlled, with dry powder. Why does the military approach it this way? Because the mine is the life of the infantry. It is the main means of fire support for infantry battalions. Every infantry battalion and infantry company commander, when planning the organization of a defensive battle, first of all plans to use his heavy infantry weapons. The main heavy infantry weapon of an infantry battalion or infantry company is a mortar. Therefore, when a fighter calls for fire support, the first thing he should hear is his own weapons that directly support him, mortar shells. And we have an offensive going on right now, this is a report from one military unit.
According to my information, at least four brigades have now received mines. These are from other batches that also do not work completely. And Smetanin’s words are just a shameful lie. This minister is simply mocking the people who protect and defend him and his position in this distant chair in a warm Kyiv office, while the soldiers are on the front line. While he has time to lie in the Verkhovna Rada and take criminal responsibility for it, Minister Smetanin and Defense Minister Umierov, who are both responsible for providing mines and controlling the supply of ammunition to the Armed Forces, are failing to perform their official duties and, through their inaction and even false statements, are contributing to a serious state crime. This is simply sabotage. This sabotage is not corrected by the ministers; they are covering it up instead. Smetanin’s statement that only 24,000 mines were removed is a lie. And what about the quality of the other mines they supplied to the army? Who checked them? Here is a specific check in the conditions of the front. What are Smetanin and the other members of this group, which is supplying such mines to the army, relying on now? They think that, on the front lines, people are trying to use everything that explodes. And somehow, they figure out what to do with this defective equipment on their own. They will shoot it somehow and decommission it retroactively. Of course, we saw the video, friends, from the military unit. Mines were lying in the field and did not explode. I want to tell you that a large number of military men will not take back the mines that did not go off, but were fired, and put them in a box. These mines will be decommissioned. But they will be decommissioned in the same way as other ammunition that flies at the enemy is decommissioned. And now these mines will be decommissioned, and then the minister says, look, according to the documents, the troops fired them and that's it. They shot it somewhere. And where did it land, this mine? Five meters away from us? 54 thousand mines? And we don't know how many? In his publication, Yurii Nikolov says that more than 100 thousand mines of all these batches have been delivered. And they are all defective. I don't know how many. But we see signs of a systemic crime here. Some military units file complaints, and some military units do not file complaints. I don't know why. But some commanders, obviously, in order not to get into conflict with their superiors, so that they don't have inspections, just silently say, okay, fine, we'll do something. And if we write complaints, they won't give us anything at all. I want to say that in the army, in order not to take these mines, the production of this state-owned enterprise, there are great intrigues. Those military brigades that have connections with the command, they negotiate with the Rocket and Artillery Department of the General Staff to get not these mines, but imported ones from other manufacturers. And these mines are given to those brigades that cannot refuse this "gift of fate." And what happens? Instead of dealing with the problem fairly and objectively, Minister Smetanin, Presidential Advisor Kamyshin, and Defense Minister Umierov are pretending. Whatever you give the army, it will spend it all and decommission it. Let’s stay silent now, ride out this scandal, and next year we’ll take the budget and think about something else. In the meantime, we’ll give these. Where are the replacement mines? There are no complaints about these mines right now. So now the army has to fire these faulty mines? Who should control the quality? A mortar soldier, who is frustrated because his comrades are dying in the trenches and he cannot cover them with fire? I’m simply addressing all brigade and military unit commanders: Write complaints, return all these mines, or this defect will continue to be supplied to other units. In one of the frontline areas, in one of our operational and tactical groups, all brigades that received these mines filed complaints and returned them. Unfortunately, this is not the case in other areas. And so these mines continue to be supplied, and the Minister of Strategic Industry, who knows the situation, continues to lie. And our most cunning and transparent defense minister pretends that he is not in the army at all. He is issuing press releases about meetings in Washington somewhere. He has a message with the US Secretary of Defense. He met with Austin and talked. It's just a shame. If there was such a scandal in the United States, the Secretary of Defense would write posts not about who he met with, but about how he is cleaning up the army, how he is ensuring the supply of mines, how he is bringing unworthy suppliers to justice. We have a Minister of Defense who does not exist at all. He is a man who came to take photos with some foreign figures, who is afraid of his own shadow, so that, God forbid, he can stay in his chair for a few more days. He is not interested in anything but his position. In general, complete irresponsibility. And this is used by people like Smetanin, like Kamyshin, who have made a convenient scheme for themselves and say that they are supporting the domestic producer in the way he wrote in his post. Some may think these are new technologies; it happens. But in the video, where a mortar soldier, a simple man, a frontline soldier, speaks with another about the quality of these mines, it becomes clear that someone might believe these are unique technologies. I want to clarify that the design of a mortar shell has not changed since 1918. For more than 100 years, it has remained the same, both then and now. There are no structural innovations. This mine is used because it is one of the cheapest and most effective types of ammunition, and it is the easiest to manufacture. In the video we discussed, the mortar operator talks about the poor quality of the B-429 and M-12 fuses. He explains what is defective in these mines. And I showed you footage of firing in one of the brigades. The soldier talks about the ammunition itself. He clearly describes all defects: "This mine, with this marking and another marking, gives us an incomplete detonation. The B-429 fuses and the M-12 fuses also have these defects."
Yes, I want to draw attention to what he says. First question: the fuses. The B-429 fuse—there was a document, a report on the results of the firing. The next, tenth one. On the packing list for the mines, it’s written that firing on charges 1 and 2 is prohibited. This is very telling, friends. This is what the soldier was talking about earlier. Why is it prohibited? Because these mines, as the soldier said, are equipped with the B-429 fuse. This fuse is for cannon artillery. It is used, in particular, in tank shells, for example. That is, in shells with high muzzle velocity, there is a strong impact. That's why the fuse works. It’s specifically designed to be less sensitive, so it can travel through and explode where there’s a significant impact. It’s placed on 120mm mines, and it doesn’t work because the mine’s speed is much lower. And everyone in production knows this. The characteristics of the B-429 fuse are well-known in the army, everyone knows about it. But they bought them and are stubbornly using them on these mines. They keep supplying these mines with this issue.
The second thing the soldier said: the M-12 fuze. According to the soldiers, it is generally suited for these mines, but there is still no explosion. The issue here is that perhaps this fuze is of poor quality—we don’t know what kind of production it comes from. Or, as the soldier says later in the video, there is no explosion even when the fuze is triggered. In other words, he’s talking about the problem with filling the casing with TNT. Even if you replace the components in the mine, it still won’t explode. The soldier also explains that in order for this fuze to work, you can imagine what our fighters at the front are doing—they are modifying the design of substandard ammunition at their own risk. He says that he adds 10 grams of explosives under the fuze to make it work and initiate the detonation.
To make the fuze work, they add explosives to the mine, and it still doesn’t detonate. Because, as all the mortar operators say, the technology for filling explosives into the mine casing is flawed. No matter which fuze you put in, it still doesn’t work. And the firing on December 4 confirms this. This is the situation now. Mines from other batches are being delivered and continue to be delivered across a large section of the frontline, and they keep arriving. And no one is checking them. They’re not being inspected, and that’s it. This is how the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Strategic Industries, and the President’s Office operate. If there is any indignation from people, from soldiers at the front, they record a video, send it to journalists, there is a resonance, there is a scandal, then a case is opened and replacements are made. But if not, if they don’t send the video, if they don’t record it—that’s it. No problem. Minister Smetanin goes to the Rada and lies. Minister Umierov pretends he’s not involved and keeps silent. And no one is checking the other batches of mines. Other batches—who will check them for you? The state leaders? Members of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander in Chief? Or what are you members of? After this, I don’t understand. You are absolutely incapacitated, Messrs. Smetanin, Umierov, and Kamyshin. So, I want to say that the situation with the mines is critical. It is not being resolved by the state. The government has taken the position of lying until the very end and hopes that the mortar operators will come up with something themselves, but it doesn’t work. The mines have all the components that should have been planned for procurement from the very beginning. The propelling charges, as we see in the video, are of poor quality. The propelling charges are of poor quality, all of them. People are buying with their own money, I know mortar operators who buy, in mortar operator chats, propelling charges from mines that are imported, obtained—I don’t know how. The propelling charges are of poor quality, and almost all of them. This is also the production of a state-owned enterprise. Imagine the money allocated for these propelling charges, they’ve ordered almost 2 million of these mines. And everywhere, the propelling charges are of poor quality. Let's watch the video.
"Bitch, the second failure in a row, fuck, the same mine, they changed the propelling charge. It comes out like this, you know? You pull it out with your fingers, fuck, you fucking pull it out. It has to be extracted, but it comes out, fuck, it goes in like a fucked-up prostitute, fuck. The new propelling charge, look. Here, these too. Here, it’s going to spin around, what the hell?"
So, from these emotional words of the mortar operator, we can understand that they load the mine, fire, and the propelling charge doesn't work. People, risking their lives because there is a shortage of ammunition, take the mine with an already activated fuse and reinsert it into the mortar barrel. Imagine, it’s a deadly risk. They load the propelling charge back into the barrel, fire again, and it still doesn't work. This means someone is performing a feat, because there are criminals at the top who either embezzled this money or have no understanding of their job at all, no clue what mortar round production is. And they don't want to learn, because it's profitable for them to send defective ammunition to the front. Then they lie in the Rada, lie to Ukrainian society, to the state, and comfortably sit in their armchairs in Kyiv, in the warmth, while these fighters at the front, under Russian fire and drone strikes, cannot save their comrades in the trenches, right next to them. While Smetanin lies here in Kyiv, collects his salary, and calmly goes to bed in the evening, not in a trench. Nothing bothers him at all. So, what did the fighter say? He showed us this propelling charge. We can see the propelling charge by what the soldier demonstrates, and they all do. It does not correspond to the production technology. It really has to go in tightly, and all these charges in all high-quality mines are inserted tightly into the mine. What the fighter showed in the video, that it comes out easily, it should not come out. The charge goes in tightly, very tightly, it is inserted tightly into the mine, and it has to stay there. And it is not only of a different shape, a design that does not match. In the picture he showed, the cartridge in the charge is spinning. Well, the cartridge should not spin, so the soldier emphasizes this. That this is already a defect. There is no need to check these propelling charges, no need to send them to the army to wait for complaints from the brigades. You need to take any batch that comes out of the factory with propelling charges and spin the cartridge. If the cartridge spins, it's a defect. And this is the responsibility of Minister Smetanin, the enterprises and procurement organizations under his control, Minister Umierov, the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense, the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense, and military acceptance, which Minister Umerov must set tasks for. Now the SBI and the SSU should also be responsible for these situations. Look, Smetanin says that millions of mines have been delivered. So if all these propelling charges are defective, who checked them? Where is the information about the propelling charges? Who checked them? What was done after this scandal to ensure that the propelling charges were checked? Do we need to supply mines to the front to the brigades? The propelling charges can be checked at the factory warehouse. You just need to go there and work with your hands a little. Leave Kyiv and correct the crime that was committed.
Second, gunpowder. Almost all of them don't work. People dry them, sort them out, and then we see that the fighters have exchanged them somewhere. Other mines, judging by the plastic packaging, they have been exchanged with foreign-made mines. Sometimes there are just extra charges that are not used, and the mortar operators exchange them. So they put in other powders, and the mine flies. And these powders are no longer used at all, they are unsuitable. Who is responsible for this? Is it necessary to hand over a mine to the troops in order to understand that the powder is unusable? Is it impossible to check any batch that you produce somewhere near Kyiv? Why would you do that? Then there are the fuzes. It turns out that the fuzes don't work at all, and one of these fuzes is not suitable for mines at all. And it should not be used. But the problem is that we now see that the gunpowder, fuzes, and the propelling charge itself are all components. Theoretically, we can spend more money. I don't know how the losses will be written off. We can either get the extra money from somewhere or buy it abroad, and it will arrive after a while. But this mine, as the soldiers say, is not of high quality. And Minister Smetanin did not say anything about this. This mine, in principle, does not explode. And we see the report on the results of the test firing of these mines, which were made by the military. This information is available in the relevant Armed Forces, in the General Staff, and anywhere else. The Ministry of Defence also has it. I think the Ministry of Strategic Industries should have it. But they do not respond to it. So look at this. Mines do not work at all when they hit the ground. There was a shot, and the soldier himself says that when they provide high-quality gunpowder, hang it from other mortars on the mine, it flies, and there is a collision with the ground. And the video shows the soldiers saying this. But there is no explosion. Even when the fuze is triggered. This indicates a violation of the technology of filling the mine body with explosives. Or, possibly, low-quality explosives. We do not know this. Minister Smetanin did not say a word about this. He said nothing of substance. Neither about low-quality components that were known in advance to be unsuitable for this mine. Nor about the fact that the soldiers say that there was no explosion even when the fuze was triggered. Nothing is said. According to Smetanin, there are no problems. New production has been ordered, millions of mines have been delivered. And there have been only 417 cases of malfunction. And only 24,000 are responsible for the mines. Is that why this is a lie? The other mines that don't work are simply not fired. You'd have to be crazy not to understand this. Or a criminal. The brigade received mines, and all of them did not explode. So Mr. Smetanin probably thinks that the brigade should fire all the mines in the field like that? What about the mortar's lifespan? Of course, if the mines don't work, what do they do with them? They are taken away from the front. They send to the brigade depot. I don't know where it will be sent next.
I want to say that in the southern Donbas direction, where the enemy offensive is ongoing, the situation with the supply of mortar shells is critical. The office of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which is primarily responsible for this, is not paying attention to it. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief himself, who, for some reason, as usual, is making no statements, is not exercising control, and has not even said that he is personally overseeing this situation. He is not checking anything. The Minister of Defense is silent. Smetanin is lying. Kamyshin pretended to be attending chess tournaments. Kamyshin is the organizer of this mortar scam, and it turns out he is also involved with the chess federation. These are truly strange things. Where is the adequate response from the state authorities? It is simply absent. These mines need to be removed—every single one of them. They all need to be removed. And it’s not the military that should be sending you mines that didn't work, Mr. Smetanin. It’s you, while they are in the trenches. It’s you, from Kyiv, who should bring your warm body to the front and check it. And now I’m making a suggestion. If Mr. Smetanin, Mr. Kamyshin, and Mr. Umierov truly consider themselves honest citizens of Ukraine, patriots, and not corrupt individuals and traitors, as we can see from these materials, they should immediately leave their, frankly, irrelevant matters and go for one day, for example, to the Pokrovsk direction. They can invite me, and I would gladly take them to the positions where their mines are currently not working and do not function at all in the war. And, in my opinion, it would be ideal if the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who stated that all our generals should sit in trenches—those who haven’t sat in a trench are not generals—should continue this line of reasoning and say that a minister responsible for ammunition for the army, who hasn’t sat in a trench, is not a minister. I would like to put him in the trenches for just one day, a few hours, and I would make an excellent report that would boost the army’s trust in the leadership, munitions manufacturers, and the political leadership. For one day, I would go into a trench, somewhere near Shevchenko, for example, along with Mr. Umierov, Smetanin, Kamyshin, and film a report on how they will be protected by their own mines. That would be interesting. They’d each be given a radio and would call for fire support. We would see what it's like to defend Ukraine when you have either inadequate leaders or criminals and thieves in the rear who steal money and can’t organize the production of basic ammunition. And then they lie, instead of taking everything back and testing it in Kyiv, at their own firing range. They lie and continue to supply low-quality mines to the troops. They are not afraid of anything. They are not afraid of the SBI or the SSU. They are confident that they have a reliable protection. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zelenskyy, if he likes someone, he is outlawed. He can do whatever he wants. I don't know what Smetanin, Kamyshin, and Umierov are telling Zelenskyy, but the Supreme Commander-in-Chief is completely absent. He is not there. For example, Zelenskyy was in Pokrovsk. He stopped by the command post of the 25th Brigade for just an hour and a half. Why not ask him there? There were representatives of several units there. And what do you think of the mines produced by the state-owned enterprise, which was organized by my adviser, Kamyshin, my ministers, Umierov, Smetanin? Why doesn't Zelenskyy ask the military on the spot? How are you provided for? There are no such questions. Because we have the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he thinks about photo shoots and videos. And for him, a trip to the front meant publishing 10 photos and then making a video in the evening that I was at the front. He is quick to hand out orders. And I want to say that a significant part of the orders that Volodymyr Zelenskyy presents are orders for heroism that people might not have shown. If Zelenskyy controlled the ammunition his young team is supplying to the army at taxpayers' expense, he would hear, listen, and ask the people who are fighting with the defective equipment he is sending to the army under his leadership, and through his ministers. And this continues. With impunity, irresponsibly, shamelessly, cynically. Obviously, I understand that if there are no conclusions, I will have to keep going, keep asking for videos to be recorded. So, I ask all Ukrainian mortar crews, if you encounter low-quality mines again, please record videos, and we will make them public. Because it is unacceptable for the state to be completely inactive, sabotaging the supply of ammunition to the army and effectively hindering the execution of combat missions to protect Ukraine. And they are trying to cover up this scheme.
So, dear friends, I ask you to provide additional videos, and we will continue to monitor and pursue this issue. We are a democratic country, and our only hope for rapid change is maximum exposure, spreading this information, and the creation of public opinion that will force our government to act according to the law and fulfill their duties, not their personal interests, as some may think. Thank you, friends, for the broadcast, and Glory to Ukraine!
