Shells didn't explode, and machine guns remained silent: why former Defense Ministry official Lieva has been remanded in custody again, and what lies ahead?
On January 22, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Poltava, on its third attempt, decided to place former head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Armament and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense, Oleksandr Liev, in custody with the possibility of a bail of 9 million UAH. During the investigation period, he was sent to a pretrial detention center for 52 days.
Cheap foreign-made analogues "jammed" after the first shot
The ex-official is suspected of supplying substandard machine guns to combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is yet another accusation that law enforcement agencies have brought against Oleksandr Liev regarding the embezzlement of state funds during the procurement of ammunition in 2022.
A similar measure of restraint—detention with the possibility of bail set at 18 million UAH—has also been chosen for one of the leaders of a state enterprise, the name of which has not yet been disclosed, through which this deal was facilitated. He and another official of the state enterprise have been charged with embezzlement and misappropriation of property, obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as service forgery.
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The decision regarding the measure of restraint for the third accomplice of the arrested individuals will be made later.
- Employees of the State Bureau of Investigations established that the former Ministry of Defense official and two leaders of the state enterprise were supposed to supply 400 certified heavy machine guns to the front in 2022. However, instead of quality weapons, cheap foreign-made analogues without labeling, unsuitable for their intended use, ended up in the troops, — said Alexander Belka, a representative of the territorial administration of the State Bureau of Investigations in Poltava, to "Telegraph." — Literally after the first or a few shots, their mechanisms malfunctioned, they could not fire in bursts, which is the main characteristic of machine guns. Because of this, our soldiers could incur significant losses.
Additionally, only half of the machine guns were delivered from the declared quantity.
Considering that the trial is taking place in Poltava, where the Territorial Administration of the State Bureau of Investigations is located, which is investigating the case, it can be assumed that the faulty machine guns were most likely found in the Kharkiv or Sumy directions, as the administration extends its activities, particularly to the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
According to data disclosed by Liev himself on Facebook, this concerns contract No. 403/1/22/21 between the Ministry of Defense and the state enterprise "Spetstekhnoeksport," which is part of the state company "Ukrspetsexport," for the supply of 400 DShK machine guns with a caliber of 12.7 x 108 mm and another 26 KPV machine guns, as well as various ammunition and shells. The contract was signed back in March 2022 for the amount of 193 million UAH. The total cost of the armaments that were supposed to be supplied to the front exceeded 6 million euros.
Reference
The DShK is the first Soviet heavy machine gun of Degtyarev-Shpagina under the 12.7×108 mm cartridge, which was adopted by the Red Army in 1939. Since then, DShK analogues have been used by many armies of post-Soviet and post-socialist countries. Currently, both warring parties on the battlefield are using a modernized version of the machine gun—the DShKM.
The KPV is a heavy machine gun modified for tank use from the infantry version of the same name.
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Documents arrived in parts for the dead weight.
As reported by Ukrainian National News, citing its own sources, "Spetstekhnoeksport" engaged the Slovak company "XXeurop s.r.o." to fulfill the order, which specializes in supplying various types of military equipment as well as its modernization.
The Ministry of Defense promptly made a preliminary payment of 97% of the contract amount.
The delivery was supposed to be made as quickly as possible. But something went wrong. The first batch of DShKM 12.7 mm machine guns, totaling 200 units, produced by the Slovak company "Kolarms s.r.o.," which meets the needs of its own army, as well as the armies of the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and other countries, arrived only in May. Unfortunately, there was no operational book (a form that records the movement of weapons, its history in military units, test results, information on possible repairs, etc.). Without this, it turned out that the ministry had no right to transfer DShK and KPV to the front. Therefore, instead of shooting down enemy "Shaheds" in the sky over Ukraine, the heavy machine guns lay as "dead weight" for a full eight months in the warehouse of one of the military units near Kyiv. Only in June did "Spetstekhnoeksport" receive the necessary documents from foreign partners, but only part of them. The rest arrived only at the end of November. And had it not been for the acting director Oleksandr Liev personally calling the Slovak partners, it is unknown how much longer they would have had to wait. Eventually, military specialists from the unit where the machine guns were stored issued a verdict: "The machine guns are of good quality, and the completeness is in order." After that, representatives of the Ministry of Defense’s Department compiled an acceptance act, which Liev signed. This cleared the way for the weapons to go to the front.
In any case, this is how the suspect explained the course of events on his Facebook page at the time when the investigation against him began.
Thus, the machine guns remained idle in Ukraine until January 2023. However, their use proved unhelpful, and rather the opposite. Military units began to complain that the machine guns handed over by the Ministry of Defense were "jamming."
Regarding the other 200 machine guns for which funds were transferred, Liev noted: "The state enterprise 'Spetstekhnoeksport' reported that it would not be able to deliver them because someone had bought them from the supplier, and offered to return the remaining advance payment. On September 11, 2022, I filed a complaint against 'Spetstekhnoeksport' regarding the improperly delivered machine guns. It contained a demand to return the funds and pay a fine and penalty of 44 million UAH. The Economic Court recovered from 'Spetstekhnoeksport' the money for the 200 undelivered machine guns (98 million UAH) and half of the penalty sanctions—22 million UAH. The entire amount was credited to the Ministry of Defense's account."
"The blood of my brothers is on your hands"
This story caught the attention of detectives from the State Bureau of Investigations. The former Ministry of Defense official is suspected of embezzlement of property through abuse of office, committed on a particularly large scale, and obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, leading to severe consequences (part 5 of article 191, part 2 of article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), which carries a penalty of up to 15 years of imprisonment.
The suspect plans to appeal the court's decision. He claims his detention is unfounded and denies all charges. In recorded videos posted on Facebook, the man denies his guilt, stating that the order and payment for the heavy-caliber weapons occurred before his appointment, and also points to military experts who found no technical malfunctions in the machine guns.
Furthermore, he notes that "the quality of the armaments available for purchase in the early months of the war was not always ideal."
"So, what does this exculpatory statement indicate," asks Dmitry Tuzov, a leading radio NV host and expert on countering Russian disinformation and IDPSO against Ukraine, in the comments under Liev's Facebook post, "that as a result of the procurement, only the forms were delivered after 8 months, while the machine guns lay idle, and subsequently 'defect reports began to come in from military units, noting the presence of deficiencies in the supplied DShKM machine guns.' So everything is bad, but Mr. Liev is still a hero because he had the courage (a brave man indeed!) to sign the documents, am I understanding this correctly? Mr. Liev, you know, you resemble Stierlitz, who is not worth arresting because 'he will wriggle out anyway.' Only the money for mines and shells—1.5 billion UAH—somehow disappeared through 'Lviv Arsenal,' while the Defense Forces never saw the mines and shells, and the machine guns do not fire because they have 'deficiencies,' as you wrote. Perhaps, at the very least, it is not your responsibility to procure weapons and ammunition for the defense of Ukraine? The trouble is that all these procurements of yours are not your personal affair. This is a problem for those soldiers who are left without mines, without shells, and without machine guns. Can you imagine a Russian tank is charging at you