Without jackets and underwear: why suppliers have started another war with Ministry of Defence
In May 2025, almost 20 tenders of the "State Logistics Operator" for the supply of non-lethal supplies to the army were cancelled. These were mostly textile products, such as jackets, trousers, underpants, bags, and backpacks.
At the same time, the qualification criteria for the tender provided for the involvement of Ukrainian enterprises. Censor.NET investigated what happened and why the manufacturers again obstructed the Ministry of Defence.
95% of the procurement of the "State Logistics Operator" is carried out through open tenders in the Prozorro system. And most of them are successful. The biggest failure occurred last spring, when the SLO failed to contract the purchase of food for the second quarter of 2024. Then all suppliers withdrew their offers. Prior to that, "Atomservice" sent an ultimatum letter to the Ministry of Defence demanding that the qualification criteria be changed.
As a result, SLO was forced to enter into direct contracts, and the supply itself was on the verge of failure in the first weeks of the second quarter. And the whole story seemed to be a planned educational campaign by the old suppliers.
But after that, unsuccessful trades were quite rare.
And then in May, suddenly this phenomenon became widespread.
First, the bidding for 170,000 polo shirts failed, then for 50,000 windproof protective trousers, then for 10,000 camouflage suits, 115,000 windproof winter jackets and 500,000 underpants.
As one of the market participants explained to Censor.NET, the producers were not satisfied with the price.
After that, the SLO sent out letters "in order to analyse alternative sources of supply of material goods for military personnel" with a request to provide a price offer for a list of goods that could be sewn outside of Ukraine.
The list includes a summer field suit, a windproof jacket, cloth capes, polo shirts, sweatshirts, trousers, underwear, sleeping bags, tactical gloves. A total of 23 items.
Very quickly, this request spread across social media through certain individuals. They claimed that the SLO was insulting the domestic manufacturer. And what kind of request is this with a deadline of 3 days to respond. They said it was for a specific supplier.
On Tuesday, the SLO responded to Censor.NET's request for information about the disruption of procurement and a request to import suppliers:
"Regarding the failed bidding: Some items were not tendered due to the absence of bidders. It should be noted that the tenders are announced in advance for 3-4 quarters of 2025 in accordance with the additional need proved for the released financial resource. The unsuccessful procedures will not affect the continuity of supply," the SLO said in its response.
"Regarding requests for imports of goods. The request for information is a common mechanism of the SLO in the framework of market analysis. It is used to understand the supply, fair price and capacity. As before, the SLO applies an additional localisation criterion in tenders to support domestic producers. However, the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remains the top priority of the SLO," the agency's press service said.
On Wednesday, one of the key producers, owner of "Textile Contact", Oleksandr Sokolovskyi, joined the debate. He confirmed the version that Ukrainian producers consider the price of SLO to be low.
"...many of the recent May auctions did not take place because no domestic producers applied for them. So what surprised you if, for some reason, in these auctions you set the expected value by 13-27% lower than last year (in which we were already operating on the verge of profitability). In addition, who prevented importers (to whom this request is addressed) from entering these open Prozorro tenders and pleasing the Defence Ministry with budget savings?" Sokolovskyi wrote on Facebook.
"That's why, despite the fact that many factories are now out of business, none of the real producers will sign contracts with prices below cost. It doesn't work that way. Otherwise, you really need to look for cheap imports, which cannot be of high quality a priori. Although it is clear that under pressure, they may even accept it, but then this discrepancy will be felt by our soldiers at the front. Unfortunately, the faulty importers, do not think about them," he added.
We'll see if Sokolovskyi is right in his claims.
Below is a comparative table of prices for the goods for which the bidding was disrupted:
| Product. | Estimated cost | ||
| May 2025 | November-December 2024 | January 2025 | |
| Mens underpants | 82,13 | 89,9 | |
| Polo shirt | 382, 63 | 488,22 | |
| Sweatshirt | 149,80 | 168,80 | |
| Individual transport bag | 1357,03 | 1588,07 | |
| Knee pads | 397,98 | 457,25 | |
| Windproof jacket type 1 | 2950 | 2970 | |
| Winter windproof trousers | 1848,5 | 1765,6 | |
As the table shows, only the price of trousers was higher in May than in December. The rest of the items were indeed 20% lower on average than the previous ones.
Therefore, the manufacturers' claims are not unfounded.
"It's very strange, dear SLO, to see such a mailing, especially after you saw last year that dumping prices from importers usually mean either inadequate quality or contractual failure. And then there are also lawsuits with these importers, because they sue penalties and do not want to return the prepayment after the SLO terminates the contracts due to non-delivery of products. So why do you need this again?" Sokolovskyi was indignant.
This remark by one of the key suppliers obviously refers to the well-known scandal with "Farminko". In March last year, the company won tenders for 75,000 jackets at very low prices, but missed the delivery date by six months. And then most of the jackets that were sewn in Vietnam were not accepted by the Ministry of Defence's quality management.
Last year, Ukrainian manufacturers already accused the Ministry of Defence of infringing on their interests. But then they did it mostly quietly.
The only one who caused a public scandal was Oleh Mitrokhin, one of the largest producers.
Over the past month, Mitrokhin has been the subject of "investigations" by the "Joker" Telegram channel, which has led the businessman to appeal to the SSU.
In the latest version of the telegram channel, it was Mitrokhin who organised the "workshop conspiracy" that led to suppliers refusing to bid.
Censor.NET's interlocutors did not answer the question whether this was true or not.
One way or another, there is an objective problem - Ukrainian producers really cannot compete with producers from China, Vietnam or Turkey in terms of cheapness.
But there is another truth. In fact, it has long been known that Ukrainian manufacturers also import some of their products from abroad. One of Mitrokhin's schemes is being investigated by the NABU.
On the other hand, this is not the only workshop complaint against SLO. In February, there was a similar scandal over bulletproof vests. At that time, however, no one disrupted the auction. But the workshop was clearly dissatisfied with the fact that SLO tried to give almost all the demand for bulletproof vests to an intermediary company that was bought 2 days before the auction and represents an Israeli company that produces bulletproof vests, not of the 6th but of the fourth class.
And the story of at least some Ukrainian manufacturers of bulletproof vests is not about super-profits, but about attempts to start from scratch.
The Ukrainian budget is really very limited. The defence hole is 400 billion. And even the payment of military salaries is under threat. The Ministry of Defence and the Logistics Forces Command even revised the procurement of food packages downwards for those who are not on the contact line.
But if you only follow the logic of a cheaper price, then you can kill all your producers. They are the ones who ultimately pay taxes.
The situation has now reached the point where, in exchange for the reservation of employees (which the Ministry of Defence provides at 100%), some manufacturers agree to sell below market value.
But this story cannot work everywhere. Not all producers are "Ukrnafta". And even here, this story cannot last forever.
Ideally, the Ministry would have a procurement policy department to resolve such conflicts. But... this department will most likely rest in peace by early summer.
Perhaps the only positive result of its activities is the creation of a Collegial body to review technical specifications for goods supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In other cases, there are no results. Although it is this department that is supposed to organise and conduct interagency groups to find and regulate mechanisms that would balance the interests of producers and the state. No such groups existed. The implementation of NATO standards has degenerated into an early merger of the DPA and SLO, which have been sitting in the same office since last week.
By the way, the same department should have had a hand in ensuring that drones were purchased according to technical specifications, not names. However, it seems that the Ministry of Defence has shifted this problem to the NACP.
Instead, the Ukrainian army is becoming a hostage to another crisis of poor management.
Instead, the Ministry of Defence will restore the procurement department, which will duplicate the SLO in its functions.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
