The director of one of the private enterprises was suspected of supplying low-quality ballistic goggles to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
Thus, in April 2023, the company signed a state contract with the Ministry of Defense for the supply of 100 000 units of glasses, and before that, it provided a certificate of conformity from a German manufacturer.
However, customs later found out that the company had only imported two thousand of these glasses to Ukraine from an official foreign manufacturer. The origin of the rest of the goods is currently unknown, although the entire batch was supplied under the guise of original German products.
Examinations of the selected samples also confirmed that the goggles do not meet the quality requirements for protection against ballistic and mechanical fragments. During the tests, the goggles were shot through, while the original products of the German manufacturer were supposed to withstand such an impact.
"Military goggles are used during combat operations to protect their eyes from debris after explosions, dust, dirt, and small particles of metal or glass. That is, improper quality is, first of all, a direct threat to the life and health of our defenders," the Prosecutor General added.
This scheme caused losses to the state of UAH 154.8 million. The director of the enterprise was suspected of misappropriation of property on a particularly large scale during martial law.
He left abroad immediately after the head of another company was suspected of similar schemes in January of this year. At that time, the issue was the supply of more than 40 000 ballistic glasses and goggles-masks worth almost UAH 60 million. The suspect has already been put on the international wanted list.
Kravchenko added that both companies are controlled by the same person.
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