NABU and SAP have completed the investigation into the “golden eggs” of the Ministry of Defense

Illustration of anti -corruption organs

The anti -corruption authorities have completed the investigation into the case of theft of hundreds of millions of hryvnias for the purchase of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine during a full -scale war.

Source: SAP, NABU, “Ukrainian Truth”

Details: The SAP prosecutor decided to complete the pre-trial investigation in the case of the former head of the Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the owners and directors of the supply companies and the natural person who were exposed to theft of state funds for the purchase of the Ministry of Defense of food for the Armed Forces during the Armed Forces.

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The persons involved in the case are the Ediner of the Department of Defense for Material Support of the Armed Forces Bogdan Khmelnitsky (is a precautionary measure -night house arrest -) and a subprive Tatiana GlinyanaTo whom the suppliers controlled companies (precautions – correspondence), the head of OK Land Food LLC Larisa Shvets (pledge 1.2 million, made), head of LLC “Active Company” Valery Melesh (pledge of 1.2 million, made), and, expert Director LLC “Premium Company” Nicholas Deshpetko (5 million pledge, made).

To date, NABU detectives on behalf of the prosecutor of the defense have opened the case materials for familiarization.

It is known that during 2022-2023 the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine provided military foods by purchasing food organizations from economic entities. The essence of this service is in the purchase of a product set according to a catalog, which contained 409 names.

The criminal scheme was to determine inflated prices for the most sought after products and lower ones to less in demand.

For example, 50 % of the cost of the total delivery under the contract, which is about UAH 1.2 billion, had only 40 types of products out of 409, and prices for them were inflated.

Conversely, 27 types of products with low prices were delivered to the Armed Forces for only UAH 3.6 million, which is only 0.14 % of the cost of such products.

There was also manipulation in the catalog with seasonality. Yes, suppliers were determined in catalogs by abnormally low prices for seasonal products. For example, the cost of cherries according to it was only 8 UAH/kg, strawberries – 10 UAH/kg, black currants – 10 UAH/kg, etc. At first glance, the Ministry of Defense made profitable purchases. However, according to the approved standards, these seasonal products could not be ordered by military units at all within the duration of the contracts, since they were concluded after the end of the period during which such seasonal products could be ordered.

At the same time, the official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine during the signing of contracts for supply “did not notice” pricing manipulations with the cost of products.

As a result, the implementation of this scheme led to the fact that in August-December 2022, two supplier companies illegally received more than UAH 733 million from the budget.

Prehistory:

• On January 21, 2023, Zn.ua reported that the Defense Ministry was buying food for servicemen more expensively two to three times than in Kyiv stores. The December Agreement with “Asset Company” was signed by Bogdan Khmelnitsky on behalf of the Ministry, which was featured in the case of theft of $ 580,000 during the purchase of military ammunition.
• Information about “chicken eggs for 17 hryvnias” was particularly publicized: the investigation of journalists referred to the price of a piece, although the document also included the price for 100 grams.
• The Ministry of Defense named the information about the delicious food by misleading and manipulation and promised to contact the SBU, and the Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov rejected the accusation against the Ministry of Defense. Later, in an interview with Ukrainian Truth, Rennikov acknowledged that he was too emotional and promised to carefully test all the facts revealed by journalists.
• Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov resigned and was released on January 24 against the background of the scandal because of purchases at high prices of products for the military. Bohdan Khmelnitsky was also released from the position of Director of the Decree Department of the Ministry of Defense, which became known on January 25.
• Parliament approved Alexei Reznikov’s resignation from the post of Minister of Defense in September 2023.
• In July 2025, the UP learned that the National Anti -Corruption Bureau searched for former Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov. Subsequently, the sources of the UP reported that investigative actions took place on June 30 in the framework of the case of the purchase of products for the army at inflated prices, the so -called case of “chicken eggs for 17 hryvnias”. In April, NABU stated that Reznikov was not suspected of proceedings. The interlocutors were close to the excendant that they did not seize any documents, but “the phone was swallowed, nothing interesting except correspondence on publications in the media.”