A scheme to sell decommissioned ships of the Ukrainian Navy was exposed in Kyiv

Kyiv police have uncovered a scheme to sell decommissioned ships. A Defense Ministry official and two other employees of a state-owned enterprise have been placed under suspicion.

The National Police of Ukraine reported this.

Investigators from the Kyiv Police and the Security Service of Ukraine documented that dealers organized the sale of decommissioned ships as scrap metal at an undervalue. This caused the state losses of over UAH 900,000.

Law enforcement officers, with the assistance of the Defense Ministry, established that one of the ministry officials, together with two representatives of the authorized enterprise of the State Enterprise Ukrspetstorg, organized the illegal sale of six seagoing vessels, decommissioned from the balance of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to their unsatisfactory technical condition and obsolescence. The ships were subject to disposal in accordance with the procedure established by law.

The main defendant, being the head of the Department of Military Property Disposal of the Ministry of Defense and having access to documents and procedures for decommissioning, used his official position to circumvent the established rules for the disposal of decommissioned property. He created conditions for the sale of ships to a specific commercial structure. These are six decommissioned ships, in particular, the Fastiv, Yevpatoria, Borshchiv and others.

The plan of the perpetrators was that instead of the procedure for the disposal of ships provided for by law, they would be artificially transferred to the lowest category for sale as scrap metal. After that, the defendants provided an understated assessment of the value of the ships and a formal competition, the winner of which was selected in advance by a specific private company. The cost of the metal was deliberately reduced several times compared to the market price, which allowed the buyer to receive a significant economic benefit.

Under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the field of defense, investigators informed all three participants in the scheme of suspicions under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – abuse of official position, committed by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy, which led to serious consequences.

Earlier, USM reported that the SBU arrested a ship in the port of Odesa that was working in the interests of the Russian Federation.