Under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor's Office in the defense sector of the Central region, an illegal scheme for the sale of decommissioned military ships of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been uncovered.

The investigation established that a former official of the Main Department of Property and Resources of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, using official access to documents regarding decommissioning, conspired with representatives of a company that was supposed to dispose of the unfit vessels.

This concerns six ships of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were removed from the balance due to technical malfunction and obsolescence. Instead of the disposal required by law, the suspects organized their sale as scrap metal. To do this, they artificially lowered the category of the technical condition of the vessels and ensured their evaluation at a significantly undervalued price. The competition to determine the buyer was conducted only formally – the victory was preordained for a specific private company.

Such actions caused the state losses of over 900 thousand UAH, while the private entity received illegal economic benefits.

Three individuals have been notified of suspicion of abuse of office, committed in conspiracy by a group of individuals and resulting in severe consequences for state interests (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators of the Main Department of the National Police in Kyiv with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Kyiv region.

Note: According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a court verdict.