Update: Court imposes preventative measures on ex-Defense Ministry official with alleged linked to fraud in weapons procurement.
Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) imposed preventative measures against a former Defense Ministry official in connection to an alleged case of fraudulent weapons procurement, the HACC announced on Feb.
2 The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported earlier on Feb.
2 that Toomas Nakhkur, the acting director of the Defense Ministry's department for military-technical policy, armaments development, and military equipment, was suspended in connection to the case. While the notice did not mention the military procurement case directly, it said the suspension was due to Nakhkur being charged with a crime.
The Suspilne media outlet and Ukrainska Pravda reported that it was connected to the procurement case. HACC judge Katerina Sikora ruled that Nakhkur must surrender his passport and wear an electronic monitoring device. The measures will remain in place for two months.
More details will reportedly be released on Feb.
7, according to the HACC. The HACC noted that Nakhkur is one of the five suspects in the alleged embezzlement of nearly Hr 1.5 billion (£40 million) worth of mortal shells. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Jan.
27 that a contract for shells was secured with the arms supplier Lviv Arsenal in August 2022, six months into the full-scale invasion. However, no arms were delivered, and some funds were moved to foreign accounts. The HACC said the Defense Ministry officials had not made plans to transfer the weapons from Croatia to Ukraine.
The individuals involved included former and current high-ranking officials from the Defense Ministry and the heads of affiliated companies. Since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Defense Ministry has been involved in several corruption scandals. The two most notorious scandals, one regarding inflated prices for food supplies and the other connected to low-quality winter jackets, prompted the dismissal of former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
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