Lviv Arsenal LLC asks the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov to help resolve the situation with the supply of mortar rounds that were purchased under a contract with the Ministry of Defense and are located in Slovakia. A copy of the company's appeal of March 21 is available to UNN.
"Lviv Arsenal is writing to you with a request to make joint efforts to find ways to supply defense products to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and asks you to consider the issue of organizing the inspection and delivery of the specified goods, possibly give appropriate instructions (orders) to hold working meetings (consultations) with the responsible employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the management of Lviv Arsenal LLC and SEVOTECH a.s. to find ways to resolve and make a decision on the issue of th
The document also states that back in July 2023, SEVOTECH and Lviv Arsenal entered into an additional agreement and agreed on new delivery dates. Thus, the first batch of mortar rounds was to be delivered on September 30, 2023.
Already on August 25, 2023, Lviv Arsenal received a letter from SEVOTECH stating that the mortar rounds that had been paid for under the contract were ready for shipment and that inspections of the goods were required in Bulgaria and Cambodia. However, the inspections, which had been agreed with the Ministry of Defense, were never conducted.
The company emphasizes that the contract between the Ministry of Defense and Lviv Arsenal expired on December 31, 2023, so it is impossible to deliver the goods. That is why the company is asking the Minister of Defense to intervene in the situation.
Recall
Back in the fall of 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Lviv Arsenal signed a contract for the supply of 100,000 mortar rounds worth almost UAH 1.4 billion. The contractor for the supply of ammunition from the Elmech plant in Croatia was the Slovakian company SEVOTECH, represented by Oleksiy Khoroshayev.
The first batch of ammunition was supposed to be delivered to Ukraine on December 20, 2022, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not yet received the ammunition under this contract. The Ministry of Defense has tried to recover the funds, but has not yet been able to do so, as most of them - UAH 818 million - have been arrested in the accounts of Lviv Arsenal as part of criminal proceedings. Another part of the funds - 30% of the amount transferred by the MoD to the accounts of Lviv Arsenal - was transferred abroad by the Ukrainian company as an advance payment.
SEVOTECH representative Oleksiy Khoroshayev said in an interview with UNN that the company had purchased mortar rounds for the Defense Ministry under a contract with Lviv Arsenal for the amount of prepayment sent by the Ukrainian company. According to him, these mortar rounds are available and ready to be shipped to Ukraine. His words were confirmed and documents provided by the lawyers of former Defense Ministry official Oleksandr Liev during the court hearing on March 15. They were also confirmed by SEVOTECH's appeals to the Lviv Arsenal, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asking to take back the mortar rounds.
UNN editorial board has figured out the chronology of the signing of the contract between the Defense Ministry and Lviv Arsenal.