Criminal prosecution of officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine only for signing defense contracts will lead to the fact that the fear of accusations will prevail over the need to supply the Ukrainian army with munitions. This could have a negative impact on the overall defense capability of the state. This opinion was expressed by the investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court in his ruling, which refused to impose a preventive measure on the former head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy Oleksandr Liev, UNN reports.
"The investigating judge did not find any signs of the prosecution pursuing an illegitimate goal and/or unreasonable interference in the activities of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. At the same time, in my opinion, a law enforcement agency cannot substantiate a motion on the basis of the information "noise" created in the media about the circumstances of a particular case (the pre-determined role and actions of persons), and therefore, in a country that is defending itself against the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, the prosecution of officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cannot be based solely on the facts of a person's signing a certain agreement and the application of the strictest preventive measure, like any other, must be justified, otherwise, the fear of possible criminal prosecution when signing other military contracts will prevail over the objective need, taking into account normal business risks, to saturate our army with means of attack, which will undoubtedly affect the overall defense capability of the state," investigative judge Yaroslav Shkodin noted in the decision.
Recall
In late January, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that it had uncovered a scheme to embezzle public funds during the purchase of ammunition. The officials in question were officials of the Ministry of Defense and managers of the Lviv Arsenal. According to the investigation, the criminals tried to steal almost UAH 1.5 billion of budget funds for the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for the Armed Forces. However, the funds were not at the disposal of any individual, but were kept on the accounts of Lviv Arsenal and were arrested.
On January 27, 2024, Liev was detained in this case, but the High Anti-Corruption Court refused to apply any preventive measure to him due to lack of evidence. Prosecutors filed an appeal against this decision, but the court hearing was postponed at the request of the prosecution.
Oleksandr Liev resigned from the Ministry of Defense a year ago on February 3, 2023.