Business Insider (BI) reported that the Internal Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it had arrested four people involved in providing 120,000 defective mortar shells to the Kiev military.
According to SBU, the captives included a military officer, a quality assurance officer and two leaders of a defense company.
BI said the news came after 6 months since Ukrainian media reported that some frontline units complained that the 120mm mortar shells had failed to fire or had not detonated as expected.
In November last year, a Kiev soldier said that only about 1 of the 10 shells could leave the launcher and detonate properly. At that time, the domestic press also reported that up to 100,000 bullets were required to be recovered.
After investigating a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where the strategic city of Dnipro is located, the SBU concluded that the four suspects had deliberately colluded to provide poor quality mortar shells to the front line.
The SBU notice stated that during the production process, the suspects used substandard materials and processed cranes, causing the main detonator to not work and the entire launch phase to operate unstably.
Although the identities of the suspects were not disclosed, SBU accused all four of them of colluding to cut production costs for profit.
The agency also said that military officers and inspectors "deberately ignored" the quality of the bullets and forged records to conceal the incident. As a result, 120,000 useless shells were delivered to the front line, SBU said. If convicted, these 4 people could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Bi also said that artillery shells, especially mortars, play a key role in Ukraine's defense as the conflict continues to grow and become an all-out war.
Ukraine is not only having a headache in terms of human resources - with the problem of whether to lower the military service age to 18 - but also facing the risk of a serious shortage of ammunition.
