The co-owner of the Slovak company Sevotech appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to help bring mortar rounds that were purchased under a contract with Lviv Arsenal for the Ministry of Defense and are now in Slovakia. The corresponding video message is available at UNN.
This ammunition has been paid for and ready for delivery to Ukraine since November 7, 2023. The CEO of the Slovakian company Sevotech has repeatedly appealed to the director of the Lviv Arsenal as a contractor with a demand to immediately pick up the shells and deliver them to Ukraine. However, since November 7, 2023, Lviv Arsenal has done nothing to bring the goods to Ukraine,
According to him, the CEO of the Slovak company Sevotech was forced to write an appeal to the president, the minister of defense, the deputy minister of defense, the prosecutor general, and the ambassador of Ukraine to Slovakia.
Once again, I appeal to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Rustem Umerov to intervene in this strange situation and help transport the ammunition to Ukraine. Today I clearly understand that only you can solve this really simple issue,
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. The other part of the funds - 30% of the amount transferred by the Ministry of Defense to the accounts of Lviv Arsenal - was transferred abroad by the Ukrainian company as an advance payment.
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 to be shipped to Ukraine. His words were confirmed by 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 them to take back the mortar rounds.
The editorial board of UNN has analyzed the chronology of the signing of the contract between the Ministry of Defense and Lviv Arsenal.