The defense capacity of Ukraine was undermined long before Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. Military units not ready for battle, demoralized and demotivated officers and soldiers, numerous corruption scandals related to the sale of military weapons, equipment, land scandals, - such were the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 2014. All the leaders of the military agency who have been in charge of it since independence have contributed to this state of affairs. But none of them took responsibility. The members of the initiative group studying corruption operations in the Ministry of Defense, including Dmytro Snegirev, Co-chairman of the Civil Rights Initiative Andrii Peliukhovskyi, and the journalist, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksandr Kholiava, are rigid in their beliefs concerning this situation.
They made public the results of their work during a press conference. 'The responsibility for destroying the Armed Forces of Ukraine must be borne by all heads of the agency. The collapsed army has become the reason why Russia ventured upon the annexation of the Crimea and the occupation of the Donbas. Today we are starting a series of briefings, during which we will tell the public about the activities of each minister. Today, it is widely known that under the leadership of Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko, the Ministry of Defense sold weapons and military equipment, land plots at rock-bottom prices all over Ukraine. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers did not give an assessment of such activity', said journalist Oleksandr Kholiava. According to him, there are many court decisions invalidating such actions. But their initiators did not incur any responsibility. In his turn, Dmytro Snegirev spoke about transactions with the property of the Dnipro military hospital, which was alienated to commercial structures during the time of Hrytsenko, and then was owned by the bank of the aggressor state.
In addition, the strategic state enterprise 'Technology Institute of the pipe industry for the production of guides for Grad, Hurricane and Smerch rocket systems' was destroyed in Dnipro. In Vinnytsia, in the military unit A0215, in 2017, an agreement was signed for 52 million USD for repair of the Antonov AN-26 aircraft, which in 2015 was 'revived' at the expense of the 'Phoenix Wings' charity fund and with the direct participation of the State Enterprise 'Antonov'. 'I demand from the prosecutor's offices to start checks on each fact', said Dmytro Snegirev.
The head of the NGO 'Protection and Assistance' Andrii Peliukhovskyi said that his organization conducts anticorruption investigations into the abuse of office by high officials of the current and former governments of Ukraine. He pointed out the blatant facts of irresponsible attitude to the problems of society demonstrated by politician A. Hrytsenko, which he addressed to him for support and assistance. He did not wait for any response from him. What do we need a team of cowards for, headed by a man who plans to run for the highest office in the state, said Peliukhovskyi.
As the speakers have mentioned, they filed complaints to the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, demanding the investigation of these and other facts, the introduction of these data to the Unified Pretrial Investigations Register, and the initiation of a number of criminal investigations to establish the truth. In addition, they will appeal to the public about an international audit of the activity of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine since independence.
