Russia Accuses Ukraine of Siphoning EU Arms Funds
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service alleges Ukrainian officials inflated prices of EU-funded weapons to generate kickbacks through a Polish intermediary.
The Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia alleges that officials within the Security Service of Ukraine arranged a kickback scheme to profit from European Union-funded arms supplies. According to the Russian agency, Ukrainian leadership used Eastern European intermediaries to inflate the price of handguns from 250 euros to 750 euros, siphoning 625,000 euros per batch of 5,000 weapons into accounts held by associates.
Russian intelligence identifies the Polish company Wytwornia Broni Jacek Popinski as a central actor in the operation. The SVR claims the company resold weapons from a Panama-based subsidiary of Glock at inflated prices using funds provided by Germany and Belgium.
These allegations surface as Ukraine attempts to address a 27 billion dollar military funding shortfall. EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis responded to the situation by noting there are "open questions" regarding the efficiency of Ukraine's spending. In a separate development, the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine reported it dismantled a group that diverted battlefield weapons to criminal networks.
