UP: The Ministry of Defense paid 1.4 billion to “Lviv Arsenal” for mines, but did not receive any of them

"Lviv Arsenal" received 1.4 billion hryvnias from the Ministry of Defense for the supply of a large batch of 120 mm and 82 mm mortar rounds, but defaulted on the contract and did not hand over any mines to the Defense Forces.

This is stated in the article "Ukrainian Pravda” (UP).

On November 11, 2022, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract with Lviv Arsenal for the supply of a large batch of 120 mm and 82 mm mortar rounds. The amount of the deal is one billion 400 million hryvnias. On behalf of the Ministry of Defense, the temporary acting director of the military-technical policy department Oleksandr Liev signed the agreement.

In December 2022, the first delivery of arms under the contract failed. The Ministry of Defense began to find out what the matter was. It turned out that "Lviv Arsenal" had an export license from a supplier company from one EU country, but the mines themselves were not in that country. They were lying in warehouses in a third country. But neither "Lviv Arsenal" nor its counterparty received export licenses from this third country before taking the money from the Ministry of Defense.

Oleksandr Liev, the signatory of the agreement, explained in a comment to the UP that "Lviv Arsenal" did grant export licenses: "This company granted an export license from the supplierʼs country, and only then did we transfer the funds to them. Most often, delivery is organized through intermediaries. Under such conditions, it is difficult for us to control the receipt of export documents from the producerʼs country."

"It was a civilized EU country that is a partner of Ukraine. And, secondly, contracts are concluded only with companies determined by the government as having the right to such activity," Liev added.

The Ministry of Defense emphasized that they cannot check all companies: if they received permission to import weapons through the Cabinet of Ministers, it means that you can work with them.

"Lviv Arsenal"

The company is located on the left bank of Kyiv at the address: Pratsy street, building 1 (old panel). Until the fall of 2022, the company did not appear among the major arms suppliers.

Yuriy Zbitnev is the founder of "Lviv Arsenal". In 1990, he became one of the youngest members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR.

The only time before the current situation, the company appeared in the public space, when it broke the contract with the main manufacturer of small arms for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the "Fort" enterprise, and was sued for 5 million hryvnias for several years.