The State Bureau of Investigations uncovered a former Defense Ministry official and two state enterprise leaders responsible for supplying defective machine guns to combat units.

The State Bureau of Investigations has announced suspicions against the former director of one of the departments of the Ministry of Defense and two leaders of a state enterprise, who were caught supplying faulty machine guns to the military.

This was reported by the SBI press service.

Investigators established that the officials were supposed to deliver 400 certified large-caliber machine guns to the front in 2022. Instead, the SBI claims that they "executed a scheme whereby instead of quality weapons, cheap analogs that were unsuitable for intended use reached the troops."

Furthermore, only half of the declared number of machine guns was supplied, and the 200 machine guns purchased with state funds lacked any markings, appropriate technical documentation, and accompanying documents, as stated in the report.

"During their combat use, the weapons could not fire continuously and became inoperable after the first shots due to the destruction of parts and mechanisms. As a result, the state budget suffered losses of over 193 million UAH, and Ukrainian soldiers put themselves at risk," the SBI noted.

The former official of the Ministry of Defense is accused of embezzlement through abuse of office committed on a particularly large scale, as well as obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which led to severe consequences.

Two leaders of the state enterprise are suspected of committing similar crimes, as well as official forgery.

If proven guilty, the suspects face up to 15 years of imprisonment.

The SBI added that last year, law enforcement had already uncovered this former official for embezzling nearly 1.5 billion UAH during the procurement of ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The investigation is currently ongoing.