The Court arrested the former official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, because of who combat units received unusable machine guns

The District Court of Poltava has chosen a preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of making a bail of more than UAH 9 million to the Former Director of a Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. A preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of making a bail of UAH 18 million was also chosen to one of the leaders of the state enterprise.

The employees of the SBI found that the official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the two heads of the state enterprise were supposed to supply 400 certified large-caliber machine guns to the front line in 2022.

Instead, they pulled off the deal, according to which, instead of high-quality weapons the troops received cheap counterparts that were not suitable for their intended use. In addition, only half of the machine guns were delivered.

The 200 machine guns that were purchased at public expense did not have any markings, relevant technical documentation, or any accompanying documents. During their combat use, the weapons were unable to fire continuously and, after the first shots, they were out of service due to the destruction of parts and mechanisms.

As a result, the state budget suffered losses of more than UAH 193 million, and the Ukrainian military put themselves in danger.

The former official of the Ministry of Defense is suspected of embezzlement of property through abuse of office committed on a particularly large scale and obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which led to grave consequences (Part 5 of Article 191, Part 2 of Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The two heads of the state enterprise are suspected of committing similar crimes, as well as forgery (Part 2 of Article 366, Part 2 of Article 114-1 and Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Thus, from the courtroom, the two suspects were sent to one of the penitentiary institutions of Poltava.

The decision on choosing the preventive measure for the second head of the state enterprise will be made later.

Procedural guidance is provided by the Specialized Defense Prosecutor's Office of the Office of the Prosecutor General's.