Anti-corruption bureau unmasks major scheme within Ukraine's defense industry

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme in the defense sector involving a former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) have exposed a massive corruption scheme in the defense sector that resulted in state losses of 246 million hryvnias appox. ($5.9 million)," the authority stated, Caliber.Az reports citing Ukrainian media. 

According to the bureau, the case involves illegal actions during the development of the automated operational command system called "Kolokol."

Authorities revealed that one of the suspects is a former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, though his identity has not been disclosed yet.

The publication reports that the investigations have discovered that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the system’s development with a private company in 2016 that lacked software development experience. Over four years, the technical specifications were changed 13 times, inflating costs by an additional 300 million hryvnias (approximately $7.2 million).

Furthermore, it has been reported that the finished product failed to meet its technical requirements, suffering from issues such as incompatibility with NATO protocols and lack of integration with other military systems. Despite these flaws, the "Kolokol" system was officially adopted by the Ukrainian army in late 2022, with plans to allocate further funding for it in 2024.

By Nazrin Sadigova