Body armor case: Former Deputy Defense Minister became a suspect

The former official is suspected of inactivity, which caused damages in the tens of millions of hryvnia.

The prosecution informed the former Deputy Minister of Defense about the suspicion of the purchase of low-quality bulletproof vests for 42 million hryvnia, which took place from April to June 2019. This was reported by the Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, 20 October.

According to the investigation, employees of the Department of Material Support Development and Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bought 11 thousand bulletproof vests, which cannot protect the military from firearms.

“The former official, knowing these circumstances, did not take measures to reject such products, so the state suffered damages amounting to UAH 42 million,” says the Attorney General’s Office.

He is charged with an article on the inaction of the military authorities, which had serious consequences for the previous conspiracy of a group of people, in a special period (part 2 of article 28, part 3 of article 426 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

In total, in the specified criminal proceedings, eight people were suspected, six of whom were holding senior positions in the Ministry of Defense at the time of the crime.

Let us remember that in November 2019, the RRB reported suspicions of five senior officials of the Ministry of Defense. They were later alleged to have been involved in the acquisition of 20,000 bulletproof vests worth 176 million hryvnia, of which 7,000 were allegedly defective.

As part of the case, Dmitry Marchenko, head of the Main Department of Development and Material Support Support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was arrested. Later, he was paid 20 million hryvnia and was released on bail.

News of Correspondent.net on Telegram. Subscribe to our channel https://t.me/korrespondentnet