The State Bureau of Investigation detained businessmen who sold eggs to the military for 17 hryvnias each

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) detained businessmen who sold eggs to the military for 17 hryvnias each.

The SBI reported this on February 2.

5 people are involved in the scheme: representatives of supplier companies and military personnel who are responsible for providing one of the military units. They also detained a military man who managed the black bookkeeping of the swindlers.

Fraudsters invented other schemes: they wrote down information in the documents that the military unit received part of the products in its warehouse, when in fact nothing was delivered. Then the "virtual" products were "written off" — as if the soldiers ate them.

The amount of established losses to the state from the activities of this group exceeds 4.6 million hryvnias. The "saved" funds, which were transferred by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to the accounts, were shared among the participants of the scheme.

• On January 21, ZN.ua journalists accused the Ministry of Defense of purchasing food products at several times inflated prices. The article stated that prices for products are three times higher than retail prices in Kyiv supermarkets (eggs are 17 hryvnias per piece). The agreement worth 13.16 billion hryvnias was concluded on December 23, 2022. It is about providing food to military units stationed in Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions.
• On January 23, the Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov personally responded to these criticisms, in particular, he explained that the Ministry of Defense does not buy individual products, but a complex service — food supply. The Minister explained that the prices of the eight suppliers are different, as well as in supermarket chains, because each one has its own specialization and own production of a certain group of goods. Product prices are analyzed by special expert institutions.
• On January 24, it became known that the Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the rear support of the Armed Forces, resigned. Subsequently, the Minister of Defense Reznikov announced changes in the nutrition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — it is about a flexible but unified menu system.