Today, March 20, the Slovak company SEVOTECH sent an appeal to the Lviv Arsenal, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asking the Ukrainian company to withdraw mortar rounds by April 1 or they will be forced to resell them. The relevant letter is available to UNN.
Earlier, SEVOTECH representative Oleksiy Khoroshayev told UNN in an interview 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 for shipment. His words were confirmed by documents provided by the lawyers of former Defense Ministry official Oleksandr Liev during a court hearing on March 15.
"We propose that you immediately, by April 1, 2024, pick up the 3,000 pieces of 82-caliber mortar rounds stored in Slovakia and the 4,000 pieces of 82-caliber mortar rounds in Sopot, Bulgaria (Vazov Machine-Building Plant warehouse). If you do not receive the goods within the above period, we will be forced to sell the said goods and compensate us for the costs of obtaining additional licenses, transportation of goods, their long-term storage, search for new buyers, as well as reputational damage," the statement reads.
The letter also states that the first batch of goods under the contract between SEVOTECH and Lviv Arsenal was ready in October 2023, but the Ukrainian company "for various reasons refused to receive the goods and deliver them to Ukraine for transfer to the Ministry of Defense". As noted, this batch of shells has been paid for.
In addition, SEVOTECH stated that it was ready to provide an inspection at the warehouse in Slovakia.
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 Armed Forces of Ukraine have not yet received the ammunition under this contract. The Ministry of Defense has tried to return the funds, but has not yet succeeded in doing 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.
In January 2024, law enforcement officers conducted searches in the case of the Lviv Arsenal contract and announced five suspicions.
UNN editorial board has analyzed the chronology of the signing of the contract between the Defense Ministry and Lviv Arsenal.