Former MoD official Liev considers his arrest groundless and refutes prosecutor's claims about possible risks (Video)

Former MoD official Liev considers his arrest groundless and refutes prosecutor's claims about possible risks (Video)

Kyiv  •  UNN

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Oleksandr Liev denies the accusations of purchasing low-quality machine guns for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and calls his detention groundless. According to him, the weapons were purchased before his appointment and accepted by military experts without any comments.

Former official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Liev considers the criminal proceedings opened against him absurd and his arrest groundless. In an exclusive commentary to a UNN correspondent after the court hearing, he stated that he did not intend to hide from the investigation and court or influence the course of the investigation.

Context

On Wednesday, the Oktyabrsky Court of Poltava  imposed a pre-trial restraint on Oleksandr Liev in the form of detention with the possibility of bail in excess of UAH 9 million. The ex-official is suspected of purchasing low-quality machine guns for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

I appeared in court three times. The prosecutor did not appear twice. And now to say that I can hide from the investigation is just absurd. To say that I can influence any actions is also absurd, because the case has been under investigation for a year, and in a year they have seized all the materials they needed. It is also absurd to say that the suspicion is justified at all. Because any person with a higher, even secondary education, reading the usual materials, the chronology of events, sees that this is just the most absurd thing 

- Liev noted.

Commenting on the circumstances of the criminal proceedings, he noted that in March 2022, the Ministry of Defense purchased and paid for machine guns. In May of the same year, the machine guns were delivered to Ukraine. At that time, Liev had not yet worked as the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy of the Ministry of Defense. It was only in August 2022 that he was appointed head of the MoD department and, according to Liev, the machine guns were kept in warehouses all the time because they had no operational documents. An ex-official notedthat after the supplier delivered the necessary documentation, the military unit drew up a form that included approval of the quality of the machine guns, and there were conclusions of military gunsmiths who signed the act of acceptance of the goods from the relevant military unit.

"They are accepted not on the basis of my own research, but by the military unit where I work, where the gunsmiths serve - they check the quality, completeness, and draw up the appropriate form. And on the basis of this form, signed by all the military, I signed the acceptance certificate, meaning that it was paid for six months before I did. I signed the acceptance certificate on the basis of the report of six gunsmiths of the military unit who specialize in close combat weapons, who had no comments on the quality, the set, or anything else," Liev emphasized.

At the same time, according to the former official, the contract for the supply of machine guns stipulated that if they turned out to be of poor quality, they could be returned with penalties to the supplier who brought them.

"And the fact that they have not been returned yet, they are still arrested, they have not been replaced with new ones - this is a question for the SBI. Who is obstructing the Armed Forces? Because in fact, these machine guns could already be working in the army if they were simply returned to the supplier. The supplier is a state-owned enterprise, Spetstechnoexport," Liev noted.

According to him, Spetstechnoexport is ready to repair the machine guns and pay the penalties, as this is their duty under the contract.

"And this is not the only case of low-quality weapons. Unfortunately, many Soviet weapons are of poor quality. Therefore, state contracts, absolutely all of them, provide for the possibility... this is the fifth clause in all state contracts, to return it or repair it at the expense of... the supplier with the payment of penalties," Liev emphasized.

Recall

The State Bureau of Investigation has served a notice of suspicion to the former head of a Defense Ministry department and two officials of a state-owned enterprise for supplying 200 low-quality machine guns to the front. The media learned that these are Oleksandr Liev, who served  as the director of the Defense Ministry's Department of Military and Technical Policy, and two officials of an arms import company. UNN investigated the case and the content of the charges, who and what Liev is suspected of, in material.

According to the investigation, Oleksandr Liev and two heads of the state-owned enterprise are allegedly involved in supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with low-quality machine guns. The former official denies any allegations .