Former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov is currently not a suspect or witness in the case of embezzlement of state funds during the procurement of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This was stated on Radio Liberty by the head of the first main unit of detectives of National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Oleksandr Abakumov.
"Currently, the person in question does not have the status of a suspect and no preventive measures have been applied to him [...] I would not disclose this information due to the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation, because the pre-trial investigation has not yet been completed and we would not like to comment on this part," he said.
When asked whether NABU could include Reznikov on the witness lists or summon him for questioning or an interview, Abakumov stated that if there is evidence, other people can also be informed of the suspicion.
"If a person commented on or participated in the commission of a crime, then their actions will be assessed. However, for us it makes no difference whether it is a minister, deputy minister, or another official. At this stage, we have concluded that we have enough evidence to report suspicion to five individuals," he stressed.
What preceded
In early January 2023, a scandal erupted around the Ministry of Defense due to the procurement of products at allegedly several times inflated prices (in particular, eggs at 17 hryvnias per one). Against this background, the Ministry of Defense decided to publish information about procurement contracts on its own website, as well as compare prices with market prices.
At the end of January, Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, resigned. It later became known that he, along with the then head of the Defense Ministryʼs department for material support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Bohdan Khmelnytskyi were involved in a case of embezzlement of UAH 1 billion from the budget.
On April 2, 2025, NABU reported that in the case of "eggs for 17 UAH" losses of UAH 733 million were discovered. Law enforcement officers declared suspicion against Khmelnytskyi, the owner of the supplier companies Tetyana Hlynyana, as well as two heads of the supplier companies and an individual.
The scheme looked like this: during 2022-2023, the army was supplied with food through the purchase of so-called food kits. This provided for the possibility of ordering products according to an approved catalog, the most commonly used, such as vegetables, cereals, meat, water, made up only 10% of the assortment. The rest, such as spices, gelatin or berries, were ordered rarely or never.
The price of the set was formed taking into account all the items in the catalog and was their average cost. This allowed suppliers to manipulate prices: to overcharge them for popular products and undercharge them for little-used products or those that could not be ordered due to seasonality of supply (cherries or apricots in winter). That is, at first glance, there were no violations, and the price of the set did not change. However, potatoes, which were supplied in thousands of tons, were sold at a high price, and seasonal berries and fruits, which were almost never ordered, cost a penny.
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