Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, headed by Alexey Reznikov, is facing a number of corruption scandals, France 24 reported. The latest such scandal is related to the purchase of jackets for servicemen: the military department bought jackets at an inflated price and, moreover, received summer jackets instead of the ordered winter ones.
Alexey Reznikov was Ukraine’s defense minister before the war started. The scandal with military jackets was the last corruption case his ministry had to face. As in previous food scandals, the jackets for the military were ordered at the original price, but Ukraine ended up paying several times more. And, on top of that, it turned out that the jackets were completely useless. Although winter jackets were ordered in Ukraine, summer jackets were delivered from Turkey. The minister denied the accusations.
ALEXEY REZNIKOV, Ukrainian politician: As was said in one post by an investigative journalist, the ministry bought the jackets three times cheaper and then, with a wave of Harry Potter’s magic wand, turned them into winter jackets. That’s not true.
This is just the latest in a series of scandals that are nothing new for Ukraine. The country ranks 116th out of 180 countries on the International Corruption Perceptions Index. Prior to the scandal surrounding the jackets, Ukrainian authorities said food was also purchased for soldiers at several times the market price. Corruption related to military recruitment is also widespread. The people in this footage have nothing to do with it. But thousands of young Ukrainians were trying to either avoid or escape the battlefield. Ukrainian investigators say officials took bribes to help them escape from the battlefield or get medical exemptions.
VLADIMIR ZELENSKY, Ukraine’s president: 112 criminal cases have been opened against military commissariat officials, and 33 people are in suspect status.
The most high-profile case may be the case of a military commissariat employee in Odessa who used part of the money he allegedly embezzled to buy this villa in Spain.
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