The supply of low-quality mines for the Armed Forces worth almost UAH 3 billion was exposed: there were 10 participants in the scheme

Law enforcement officers stopped the activities of a criminal organization that seized almost 3 billion hryvnias of budget funds allocated for the purchase of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines for the Ukrainian military.

Source: SBI, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko on social networks

Kravchenko’s direct speech: “One of the supplier companies concluded five large contracts with the Department of Military and Technical Policy of the Ministry of Defense, the Defense Procurement Agency and the Command of the Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for over UAH 10 billion.

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According to these contracts, more than 360,000 sets of mines of various types were to be delivered. The result is different: neither full-fledged mines nor state money.”

Details: According to the investigation, the members of the criminal organization created a fictitious picture of the ability to manufacture and supply ammunition. To do this, they used a limited liability company that had never been involved in the production of mines before, but had access to Defense Department contracts with multibillion-dollar advances.

In order to mislead military officials and military representative offices, those involved artificially “inflated” the company’s financial indicators — at the end of 2022, they massively transferred funds between related structures, creating the appearance of high turnover and financial stability.

In addition, the participants organized the preparation of technical and design documentation for PVP-50 and PVP-200 anti-personnel mines, as well as MPT-23P2 anti-tank mines. In these documents, false information was deliberately placed: detonators were indicated that could not actually be used with such products, the actual weight of explosive devices was overestimated, and explosives with an inappropriate chemical composition were used.

Also, the documentation indicated allegedly performed tests, which in reality were either not performed at all according to certain parameters, or showed negative results.

The investigation established that these critical flaws were overlooked by military officials who approved documents and approved contracts. In particular, without proper justification, it was agreed to conduct tests only once every five years or after the production of 10,000 units of products, which actually made it impossible to control the quality of new products.

As a result, five state contracts were concluded, according to which more than UAH 2.9 billion of advance funds were transferred to the company’s accounts. The delivered mines turned out to be unusable – they either did not work or did not have the claimed impressive properties. Under separate contracts, the products were not delivered at all, and the advances received were not returned.

It was also established that a significant part of the funds was used by the participants for the wrong purpose — they were directed to financial assistance to third parties, purchase of equipment, placement of funds on deposits and other operations with signs of legalization of illegally obtained income.

On January 8, 2026, as part of the criminal proceedings, the SBI employees conducted a series of searches and detained four members of the criminal organization, including its organizer and the heads of certain areas. They were informed of the suspicion of embezzlement of funds in particularly large amounts, legalization of property obtained through crime, as well as creation and participation in a criminal organization. Another member of the group is currently being sought.

In addition, four military officials of the military representative offices of the Ministry of Defense were notified of the suspicion for willful failure to perform official duties, which led to serious consequences for the state’s defense capability. Suspicion has also been declared against an official of a state-owned enterprise who allowed explosive devices to be equipped with substances of inappropriate quality and with less weight than stipulated by the technical conditions.

At present, petitions to the court on the selection of precautionary measures are being prepared for all the suspects.

The Prosecutor General’s Office will insist on keeping them in custody with the alternative of providing bail in the amount of 100 to 500 million hryvnias.