The New York Times has published confidential data from Ukraine’s State Audit Service and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
According to these documents, in 2024 alone, approximately $1.2 billion disappeared from Ukrainian military contracts — losses related to fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Seven of the ten largest suppliers to the Ukrainian army received new orders despite ongoing fraud cases against them, unfulfilled previous contracts, or the detention of their leadership. Auditors identified 18 companies that received contracts without fulfilling previous ones. Six of them had not properly fulfilled a single one.
Approximately $126 million was lost solely due to bypassing cheaper offers. State chemical plants in Pavlohrad supplied the army with 233,000 defective mortar shells — they either fell out of the barrel or dropped to the ground without detonating.
Plant director Leonid Shyman had previously been involved in anti-corruption proceedings. He received a contract worth approximately $280 million while under bail. The plant initially reported a lack of production capacity, then changed its mind. No one checked. And when the defective shells became known, the same agency tasked him with supplying almost all 122mm artillery ammunition for 2025.
It looks very much like the work of our Ministry of Health, only the scale is, of course, different. But the schemes are analogous: awarding state contracts for cancer drugs to obscure companies and not checking contract fulfillment for years. And when the scandal spills into the public domain, one can declare that “the problem is chronic” — and continue doing exactly the same thing. But let us return to Ukraine.
Missile procurement from Turkey. Three bids for identical missiles from the same factory: at $4,200, $4,600, and $5,100 per unit. They chose the most expensive one, through an intermediary. The cost increased by approximately $130 million.
American anti-corruption expert James Wasserstrom summarized it in one phrase: in Ukraine, everything that isn’t nailed down will be stolen.
Polish politician Paweł Usiądek, commenting on this data, wrote on social media:
“Poland handed over equipment to Ukraine whose value has still not been disclosed. Brussels is opening new negotiation clusters without any conditions. Not one more zloty!”
