Babel: the National Guard, law enforcement officers and the State Emergency Service purchased 33 000 unreliable tourniquets

From January 2023 to May 2024, the Security and Defense Forces (excluding the Armed Forces of Ukraine) purchased at least 33 248 unreliable tourniquets.

Babel writes about it.

These are tourniquets of the brands "Dnipro", "Piton-3", "SpetsTechOsnastka", "Pharmmedalians", "Spas", Remed and Paramedic. More than 400 products could not be identified.

Tourniquets of bad quality were purchased by three military units of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU), three units of the State Emergency Service, 10 units of the security police, the Main Departments of the National Police in the Chernivtsi and Vinnytsia regions, the court security unit, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutorʼs Office, and the State Special Transport Service.

Babel kept calculations based on completed tenders for the purchase of medical materials. There were 42 of those that met the specified parameters. They cost the Security and Defense Forces 16.6 million hryvnias. Most of the sum — 15.9 million hryvnias — was received by the manufacturer of “Dnipro” tourniquets, the “VK Prostir” company, which before the full-scale war was engaged in printing, in particular advertising materials, and produced furniture.

Combat medics criticize the "Dnipro" tourniquets — they say they do not stop arterial bleeding and tear at the first use, there were cases when the tourniquets did not work. The manufacturer of tourniquets "Dnipro" declares that the criticism of its tourniquets is an information campaign of competitors, and in fact, many doctors have no complaints about the quality.

• There are no quality standards for tourniquets in Ukraine yet. Last year, the Ministry of Defense created a department to develop them, and the Ministry of Health wrote a draft of the requirements for the products.