Ukraine detains defence officials suspected of faulty shells supply

Ukraine has detained defence officials suspected of supplying the army with faulty mortar shells, the SBU security service said Tuesday, as Kyiv’s forces try to fend off Russian advances along the frontline.

The SBU said in a statement that it had “detained the director general of a defence plant and his first deputy in the Dnipropetrovsk region, who had supplied the armed forces with a batch of ammunition that turned out to be unsuitable for combat use”.

Two defence ministry officials were also taken into custody. If found guilty, the suspects could face 15 years in prison.

Ukraine has been plagued with corruption in the army and the ministry of defence, as it ramped up military production and received Western aid after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Several corruption scandals led to the resignation of Oleksiy Reznikov as defence minister in September 2023.

A media report in late 2024 said at least 100,000 120-millimetre (4.7 inches) shells were removed from the front line for examination.

Soldiers had voiced concerns about defective shells, saying the rounds would not explode, remained stuck in the mortar or fell off target, according to private Ukrainian TV 1+1.

The probe claimed that the producers used low-quality materials which led to the failures, and defence ministry officials in charge of quality control turned a blind eye on it.