Posted on 09/06/2026 11:32:34 AM PDT by Mount Athos
... A Ukrainian arms factory had supplied the military with thousands of defective mortar rounds.
But even as the officials noticed that weapons were arriving faulty, Ukraine’s Defense Procurement Agency continued to award Mr. Shyman’s factory new contracts.
Seven of Ukraine’s top 10 military contractors won new business despite open criminal investigations for fraud, failures to deliver on earlier deals or the arrest of chief executives for corruption.
Companies won contracts without demonstrating that they could supply the weapons, or without licenses to deliver them. Auditors identified 18 companies that signed deals despite defaulting on previous agreements. Six of those companies failed to fulfill a single contract.
The internal government audits showed that in 2024 alone, Ukraine lost about $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement.
Mr. Zelensky has failed to clean up the procurement system, and the problems have reached into his inner circle. Last year, corruption investigators secretly recorded his former business partner urging officials to buy armored vests that had failed safety tests. Investigators say the man fled Ukraine amid the investigation.
“Anything that isn’t nailed down in Ukraine will be stolen,” said James Wasserstrom, an American anticorruption expert who has tried throughout the war to draw attention to defense industry fraud. “This has been a longstanding tradition.”
A court later ruled that Mr. Shyman’s company, Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, had sold the army 233,000 unusable mortar rounds.
Investigators said they found that $9 million had passed through a bank account in Liechtenstein linked to Mr. Shyman’s wife.
Mr. Shyman was sentenced last month to five years in prison in a separate case for orchestrating a corruption scheme to sell explosives at inflated prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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The words “Ukraine” and “corruption” have always been synonymous.
Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, had sold the army 233,000 unusable mortar rounds.
And the owner was allowed to leave the country instead of facing a firing squad. On the other hand, I don't think anyone was held responsible for the defective torpedoes sold to the U.S. Navy before and during World War II.
Fraud and waste are rewarded in every Democrat run city.
“The words “Ukraine” and “corruption” have always been synonymous.”
Some Ukie will come on here and say, “But Russia is more corrupt.” True, but it’s a deflection and doesn’t excuse this.
These are UKRAINIAN auditors that found the corruption and it was Ukraine that found Shyman guilty and sentenced him to prison.
Estonian minister steps down after €70m defence procurement scam - September 4, 2026
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur has resigned following a scandal in which he authorised the payment of €70 million to an Indian company for artillery shells, only to receive ammunition of defective quality, it emerged on Thursday.
Britain’s The Telegraph reported that Datasel SRL was contracted to produce the shells for use by the Ukrainian military against Russia, and that Datasel had “not previously produced or sold a single shell”.
The newspaper said that Estonia made the payment from the EU military fund in August 2024 to send munitions to Ukraine’s front line by November that year.
“The Indian-run, Italy-based company repeatedly delayed delivery. When a shipment was eventually inspected in 2025, the rounds were found to be faulty and none were sent to Ukraine,” The Telegraph reported.
https://www.dawn.com/news/2027368/estonian-minister-steps-down-after-eur70m-defence-procurement-scam
Yes, they’re both corrupt.
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