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Ukraine uncovers another $40 Million in weapons fraud

SOTT, Melanie Sun, The Epoch Times, Sat, 27 Jan 2024

he war-torn nation has announced a clean-out of its weapons procurement process amid ongoing corruption.

Ukraine’s National Police and Security Service on Ukraine (SBU), alongside the country’s Ministry of Defense, announced on Saturday they have uncovered an insider network that has been charged with embezzling almost $40 million in funds marked for weapons purchases.

Five individuals who formed a suspected criminal organization have been served “notices of suspicion” — the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings — for “appropriation, embezzlement of property, or possession of it by abuse of official position,” the SBU said.

Four of the suspects are current or former employees of the Ministry of Defense, including the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense, and the head and commercial director of the Lviv Arsenal company.

Another suspect is an ex-official from the ministry, who has been detained while trying to leave the country at a border crossing point.

A businessman representing a foreign company, presumed to be the arms supplier, has also been charged………………………………………………………………………………

To date, the United States has provided more than $44 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. But the Pentagon has run out of funds to replenish its stocks, so most military aid to Ukraine, for the time being, has halted.

Congress is currently debating a $105 billion supplemental spending package, proposed by the Biden administration in October 2023, that packages together defense funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the U.S. southern border.

Analysts previously told The Epoch Times that Ukraine doesn’t have a viable pathway for victory without foreign arms shipments and monetary support amid the waning U.S. support, as the Pentagon spreads its resources over increasing threats to the international rules-based order in the South China Sea as well as the Middle East.

Without international arms shipments, Ukraine would most likely be forced into a brutal stalemate with Russia and, at some point, would need to cede some of its territory to its aggressor, analysts say.

Comment: It brings to mind the old saying: “A fish rots from the head down”. So perhaps they should take a closer look up to uncover their “problems”. When a country’s leadership is completely corrupt, we can’t be shocked when more corruption is found lower down the ranks.

See also:

• WaPo: US changing strategy on Ukraine
• Hunter and the hunted: How Joe Biden is being linked to corruption, terror attacks, and political assassinations in Ukraine
• IG report finds Pentagon failed to account for more than $1B in weapons sent to Ukraine
• EU’s Ukraine weapons goal ‘unattainable’ – Germany
• Ukraine’s cyber security chief fired over corruption scandal
• Leaked US strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat  https://www.sott.net/article/488310-Ukraine-uncovers-another-40-Million-in-weapons-fraud

January 29, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, weapons and war