MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has uncovered a scheme by a group of businessmen who provisioned the country’s army with defective artillery mines in February 2022.

"The SBU has uncovered a corruption scheme that led to the disruption of a state order for the production of a large amount of ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces. This concerns the implementation of a defense contract to provide the Ukrainian army with artillery mines worth nearly 270 mln hryvnias ($7.4 mln)," the SBU said in a statement on Telegram.

According to investigators, the deal involved the heads of three private companies. "Under the contracts, the businessmen were expected to ship the weapons by February 2022," the SBU said. However, the companies managed to deliver only a portion of the ordered mines to the Defense Ministry, which, on top of all, turned out to be defective due to the use of low-quality gunpowder.

The companies’ chief executives have been charged with fraud and are facing up to eight years in prison.