Weapons paid for and never delivered. The procurement of grenades for Ukraine, worth tens of millions, has turned into an international investigation into the disappearance of money, in which Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is also involved.
To defend against the Russian invasion, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine ordered 100,000 pieces of mortar shells from the Ukrainian company “Lviv Arsenal” in October of last year.
For this, 36.6 million dollars were allocated from the Ukrainian budget, but the ordered shells have not been delivered to this day and Ukraine is demanding the return of the money through the courts.
Apart from the Ukrainian “Lviv Arsenal”, companies from several European countries were also engaged, to which part of the money was transferred for the purchase of shells. The headquarters of one of them is in Zagreb, and it also operates in the territory of BiH.
Police and judicial institutions in BiH have joined the investigation, which, according to the available data, was launched with the aim of discovering what happened to the money for Ukrainian weapons.
Through EUROPOL, they were asked for support in obtaining data on the operations of the companies involved in the procurement, as well as information from banks in BiH.
“We have been asked to check the operations of a company from Ukraine and a company from Vitez, and they relate to the delivery of weapons,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central Bosnia Canton confirmed, without specifying which specific companies will be checked.
Who are the actors in arms procurement?
Since March of this year, a dispute has been pending before the court in Kyiv against the company “Lviv Arsenal”, with which a contract was concluded for the procurement of 120 and 82 millimeter mortar shells, it was confirmed by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Responsibility for the implementation of the contract rests exclusively with ‘Lviv Arsenal’, and the preliminary investigation procedure is in progress,” the Ukrainian Ministry replied to journalist’s question on how they will ensure the return of money from other European companies involved in that business.
What do the Ukrainian media write?
In recent months, Croatian investigative journalists, as well as Ukrainian media, have reported on the affair with Ukrainian weapons.
In the text “Prazni Lviv Arsenal”, published in July by the Ukrainska Pravda portal, it is stated that the company “Lviv Arsenal” owned by Ukrainian businessman and politician Yuriy Zbitnev, transferred only part of the money to the European partner, while almost one billion hryvnias (about 27.2 million dollars) still in Ukraine and blocked on accounts.
The contract for the purchase of weapons with the company “Lviv Arsenal” was signed in the fall of 2022 by Oleksandr Liev, then acting head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Liev resigned in February this year, which was preceded by accusations that he had pro-Russian views, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
