The court arrested for two months the ex-deputy Minister of Defense, who is suspected of buying food for the Armed Forces at inflated prices

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv arrested the former Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov. He is suspected of purchasing food for the armed forces at inflated prices.

This information was confirmed to "Babel" by sources in law enforcement agencies. Subsequently, this was officially reported to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

The court arrested Shapovalov for two months. He also determined an alternative to arrest — bail in the amount of 402 million 600 thousand hryvnias.

• 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. 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 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.
• On February 1, the former Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov was charged with lobbying for the conclusion of contracts for the supply of products for the military at inflated prices, former head of the Department of State Procurement and Supply of Material Resources Bohdan Khmelnytskyi for the purchase of low-quality body armor, and Deputy Director of "Promoboronexport" Volodymyr Tereshchenko, who concluded a fictitious contract to assess the condition of repaired aircraft components.