The Ministry of Defense paid, but did not receive weapons worth more than UAH 51 billion: Vitaliy Shabunin
In Ukraine, the issue of transparency and effectiveness of defense procurement has repeatedly become the subject of heated public debates, journalistic investigations and scandals. For years, the Ministry of Defense has been in the spotlight for problems with arms contracts, where public money was paid up front and the army was left without the necessary weapons. This issue became especially relevant after the start of a full-scale war, when every hryvnia of the defense budget literally turns into a weapon capable of saving lives at the front. However, even under such conditions, the state faces glaring failures in defense procurement, which are impressive in their scale.
On March 18, it became known about a new wave of problems in the defense sector. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine under the leadership of Rustem Umyerov has officially reported on the accumulated overdue receivables under military contracts in the amount of more than 51.4 billion hryvnias (as of February 2025). This means that the money for the weapon was paid, but its suppliers did not fulfill their obligations within the terms specified in the contract. About this stated Vitaly Shabunin, head of the board of the Anti-Corruption Center.
According to him, this amount looks particularly threatening against the background of previous indicators. After all, even during the time of Oleksiy Reznikov, who was repeatedly criticized for corruption scandals in defense procurement, the amount of overdue debt was almost half that – about 27 billion hryvnias.
In order to understand the scale of the problem, Shabunin cites an indicative figure: more than 51 billion hryvnias paid to the Ministry of Defense for unclaimed weapons is three times more than one of the largest Ukrainian charitable funds “Return Alive” has collected since the beginning of the full-scale war.
“In order to realize the colossalness of this (flushed down the toilet) amount — Return Alive collected 15 billion hryvnias during the entire great war.
The largest fund collected THREE TIMES less than the Ministry of Defense flushed down the toilet without receiving the weapons it paid for.
Now imagine what a colossal difference these 51 billion would make at the front in the hands of competent managers!
For example, in the hands of Taras Chmut, whom, let me remind you, Umyerov threw out from the supervisory board of AOZ, only to appoint his own Zhumadilov as the head of the Agency. – Shabunin wrote on his Facebook page.
He outlined the official response of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to the request of the Public Organization “Anti-Corruption Center”:
Photo: facebook.com/vitaliy.shabunin
The conditions of war make the issue of effective resource management critically important. Every hryvnia that did not reach the front means a failed operation, an unprotected soldier or a lost life. In such a situation, it is obvious that defense procurement should be managed by people who have proven their ability to work honestly and efficiently.
