The military buys ammunition independently: where do the funds intended for the Armed Forces disappear?

The war in Ukraine highlights many systemic problems that have gone unnoticed or hidden in peacetime. One of the most painful and urgent of them is providing mobilized fighters, including police officers, with adequate ammunition. In the conditions of war, this is critically important for the effective defense of our country. The state should fully provide its defenders with everything they need, but the reality is often different. Soldiers are forced to buy ammunition on their own or turn to volunteers for help. Such a situation calls into question the effectiveness of the use of public funds and causes deep concern in society.

How the armed forces are provided

Currently, the procurement of weapons, military equipment, uniforms, and ammunition is carried out by the Ministry of Defense, other departments, charitable foundations, volunteers, local authorities in frontline regions, military units, and military personnel themselves. With the start of a full-scale war, state budget spending on defense increased significantly: from 2.3% of GDP in 2021 to 21.8% in 2022 and 32.2% of GDP in 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, these costs already amounted to almost 30% of GDP.

Along with this, significant amounts of military aid to finance the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were sent from Western partners. According to the data of the Kiel Institute, official military aid by the amount of commitments in 2023 amounted to 38.3 billion euros, which corresponds to 23.2% of Ukrainian GDP. In 2024, Ukrainian budget spending on security and defense is planned at the level of 46 billion dollars, and military aid from the United States of America alone, approved in April 2024, amounts to 47 billion dollars.

The norms for providing material property to servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the State Special Transport Service are determined by the order of the Ministry of Defense No. 232 of April 29, 2016. According to the explanations of the Command of the Logistics Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, provided to the ArmiyaInform information agency of the Ministry of Defense, all military personnel in the conditions of martial law are provided with material property in accordance with norm No. 1 (Combat Uniform). This norm includes mandatory provision of military personnel with 46 items, ranging from hats to winter jackets. In addition, military personnel must also receive items according to the “Combat Special Kit” (BSK) norm, which includes personal protective equipment and equipment (for example, protective glasses, camouflage suits, tactical knee pads, ballistic headphones, summaries, flashlights, etc.). However, not all subjects are always issued from this list. Some positions the state only recently began to purchase centrally. For example, the Ministry of Defense approved the technical specification for the purchase of “special headphones” only in August 2023, and the first batches were purchased in January 2024.

So, officially, our state and other countries allocate significant sums to support the Armed Forces. However, in practice, the military, including mobilized security forces, face situations when basic ammunition — helmets, body armor, uniforms, etc. — must be purchased at their own expense.

What the mobilized defenders say

IA “FAKT” spoke with Ukrainian military personnel serving in the Kharkiv region, and this is what they said.

Senior Lieutenant Oleksandr:

“When we were mobilized, they promised full support, but in reality I had to buy myself a body armor and a helmet with my own money. Military stores are now thriving because we all buy our own supplies. Even in combat conditions, we cannot fully rely on government support. Yes, we are given something, but it is not enough and a lot of things and equipment are of poor quality.”

Lieutenant Serhii adds:

“Military reserves often do not meet real needs. We have some bulletproof vests from the last century that are not able to protect against modern threats. Each of us has to find ways to get modern equipment, and this becomes especially difficult when we are on the front lines. We would rather buy ammunition for ourselves than be killed.”

Soldier Mykhailo spoke very emotionally:

“Is it possible to treat your defenders like this? Why should we buy tools and uniforms? We protect the state! And it turns out that most of the salary goes not to the woman and children, but to me. This is normal?”.

The situation is not better among the mobilized security forces, including policemen. They are also forced to buy their own ammunition. In chat rooms created for employees of police departments, appeals are often published to raise funds for the necessary protective equipment and equipment for colleagues.

Mykhailo, the head of one of the police units, showed one of the following messages and shares his experience:

“Now we are independently collecting funds among our colleagues to buy new helmets and bulletproof vests for those of them who were mobilized. We often turn to volunteers, but this cannot be a permanent way out of the situation.”

Serhiy, a police major, said:

“Yes, we often collect funds for ammunition for our colleagues, and we also turn to benefactors and volunteers. People respond, and we are grateful for every hryvnia, but this is not a solution to the problem. The state must provide our soldiers with everything they need.”

The police officer Oleksandr also adds:

“Our colleagues help each other. We are raising money among ourselves to buy ammunition. It is not always easy, because everyone has their own expenses and families. But we cannot wait for the state to remember us. We don’t want our boys to suffer! We want to help them somehow!”.

Oleg, mobilized from the police, notes:

“We cannot constantly rely on ourselves, our colleagues, friends and volunteers. The state must take responsibility and provide us with everything we need. We are risking our lives, and we cannot even count on her effective and high-quality support.”

Where do the funds go?

One of the main reasons for undersupplying the mobilized military is corruption and inefficiency in the allocation of resources. This phenomenon has become so widespread that in the conditions of war, every citizen asks the question: where do the huge funds allocated for defense go?

Corruption is one of the biggest internal enemies of Ukraine. Huge sums allocated for the purchase of weapons, ammunition and other equipment often do not reach the recipients due to corruption schemes.

Police Major Yevgeny, who was mobilized to the Armed Forces, comments:

“We know that the state allocates a lot of money for our provision. But where they go, we understand like no one else. We know about corruption scandals at the top of the government, we often hear about them from the mass media, we understand all these schemes. The money that should have been spent on ammunition disappears into the pockets of unscrupulous officials. This is a real tragedy for our country! If strict punishments for corrupt officials were legally defined in our country, if the courts did not release them on bail, we would not have such a shameful phenomenon at all.”

In addition to corruption, a big problem is the inefficient allocation of resources. Even those funds that reach their destinations are often used irrationally. Poor organization of logistics, lack of proper control and planning lead to the fact that ammunition does not reach those who need it most. This creates additional difficulties for our military, who are forced to provide themselves with everything they need.

So, corruption has become a real disease for the Ukrainian defense system, and not only for it. Despite the significant funds allocated by the state for the purchase of weapons, ammunition and other equipment, a large part of this money simply disappears due to corruption schemes. Procurement officials often resort to fraud: they receive kickbacks, inflate prices for goods, and purchase low-quality or unnecessary equipment. All this leads to the fact that the military is left without adequate protection and ammunition.

Corruption is an internal enemy of our military, equal to an external enemy. As our military stands on the front lines risking their lives to protect the country, corruption and inefficiency in the allocation of resources undermine their security from within. This internal enemy is no less dangerous than the one they face on the battlefield. Inadequate support of the military has catastrophic consequences – the risk to the life and health of those on the front lines increases, the fighting capacity, morale and efficiency of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decreases.

When resources allocated for defense disappear into the pockets of unscrupulous officials, it is not just a financial loss, it is a loss of human lives. Our military deserves full support and proper provision. They need to be sure that the state is behind them, that their protection is the number one priority. Only by overcoming corruption can we effectively provide our defenders with everything they need, and we, as a society, are obliged to help them in this.