‘Corrupt Ukraine officials’ stole money meant to buy weapons
from a Ukrainian arms firm conspired with defence ministry officials to embezzle almost $40 million (more than £31m) earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells for the war with Russia, the Ukrainian security service reported.
The SBU said five people have been charged, with one person detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. If found guilty, they face up to 12 years in prison.
The investigation comes as Kyiv attempts to clamp down on corruption in a bid to speed up its membership in the European Union and Nato.
Officials from both blocs have demanded widespread anti-corruption reforms before Kyiv can join them.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2019, long before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Security officials say that the current investigation dates back to August 2022, when officials signed a contract for artillery shells worth 1.5 billion hryvnias (£31.1m) with arms firm Lviv Arsenal.
After receiving payment, company employees were supposed to transfer the funds to a business registered abroad, which would then deliver the ammunition to Ukraine.
However, the goods were never delivered and the money was instead sent to various accounts in Ukraine and the Balkans, investigators said.
Ukraine's prosecutor general says that the funds have since been seized and will be returned to the country's defence budget.
Meanwhile, family and friends of jailed British-russian dissident Vladimir Karamurza have become increasingly concerned about his fate after he disappeared from a prison colony in Siberia.
Mr Kara-murza, who has survived two poisonings since 2015, was jailed for 25 years in April 2023 by a Moscow court on charges of treason over his opposition to the war in Ukraine.
He has been held in solitary confinement in a maximumemployees security penal colony in Omsk for the past four months, but yesterday his wife, Evgenia Kara-murza, said he has been moved to an unknown location.
She has also repeatedly called on the UK government to do more to help secure the release of Mr Kara-murza, a British citizen, saying she fears he will die if he is not freed soon.
Bill Browder, a friend of Mr Kara-murza and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, said: "As he's a UK citizen, our Foreign Secretary David Cameron should be using all tools to get Vladimir released.
"The government must act decisively before he dies in prison, which will likely happen if he's not released."
MPS have also called on the government to act, including Commons foreign affairs committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, who said: "Karamurza is a political prisoner and British citizen. The UK must appoint a dedicated national hostage lead to better protect and advocate for British nationals wrongly held abroad."
Foreign Secretary David Cameron should be using all tools to get Vladimir released Bill Browder