Ukrainian defense minister reveals massive corruption in armed forces

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Tuesday that authorities have detected significant instances of corruption within the ranks of Ukraine's armed forces.

In a statement on Facebook, Umerov disclosed that the recent internal audit conducted by the Defense Ministry and its General Inspection uncovered corruption crimes exceeding 10 billion hryvnia ($262 million) within the last four months alone, not accounting for earlier violations.

Umerov said that in December, the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, foiled a corruption plot for the purchase of ammunition for almost 1.5 billion hryvnia ($39.3 million).

"The news about detentions and criminal cases that you have been seeing lately is a change. Changes that will be noticeable more often. One of the priorities of the Ministry of Defense team is to clean up the system from unfavorable participants — inside and outside the institution," he said.

The Defense Ministry is trying to solve the corruption problem "systematically" and is implementing a "new procurement architecture according to NATO standards," Umerov said and added weapons purchases are now carried out via two special agencies.

"In four months, we managed to save about 3.5 billion hryvnia ($91.7 million) on all logistics purchases. This is approximately 20% of the planned amount of purchases," he said.

Rustem Umerov was appointed as Ukraine's defense minister in September 2023. Assuming the post, he said fighting the corruption will be his top priority.