NEW YORK, April 12. /TASS/. Ukrainian ministries create shell companies to sign arms export contracts, US journalist Seymour Hersh said in an article, published on the Substack platform Wednesday.

"Many government ministries in Kiev have been literally "competing," I was told, to set up front companies for export contracts for weapons and ammunition with private arms dealers around the world, all of which provide kickbacks. Many of those companies are in Poland and Czechia, but others are thought to exist in the Persian Gulf and Israel," Hersh says.

US investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in his article published on February 8, explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation after nine months of discussions with administration officials in charge of security matters.