Liev on the procurement of ammunition: I was under constant pressure

The former acting head of the Department of Military Technical Policy, Development of Arms and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksandr Liev, said that there was indeed pressure on him to provide the military with ammunition immediately, but it did not concern specific contracts or companies. He stated this in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

On February 2 and 5, Oleksandr Liev underwent two polygraph examinations to prove his innocence in the case of embezzlement of almost UAH 1.5 billion for the purchase of shells for the Armed Forces. One of them was public in the presence of 14 different media outlets. Based on the results of the checks, he clearly answered 6 out of 7 questions. When asked whether he had received instructions from his superiors to sign a contract with Lviv Arsenal, which is involved in the case, Liev said that this needed to be explained.

"Yes, this issue needs to be explained. I was constantly under legitimate pressure from both the military and political leadership of the country, because many times we attended meetings at the President's Office, where we demanded to provide ammunition to the Armed Forces immediately and as soon as possible, there were daily meetings with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, where we demanded the same, and every day we received ciphers and other official signals from the Armed Forces command, which categorically demanded to provide ammunition immediately. I still remember this pressure very well. If asked if I had received instructions to provide ammunition, the answer would be yes. Was there an instruction to provide ammunition in the procurement with this particular company - the answer is "no", because it was not a conversation about any particular company. The conversation was always about the need for ammunition," Liev commented on his answer.

He noted that during a polygraph test, you can answer "yes," "no," or "I don't know," which is why the answer was given. All other questions were answered clearly and confirmed by the polygraph examiner.

At the same time, Liev pointed out that many media outlets in their news about his polygraph test emphasized this answer.

"This all has the hallmarks of a custom-made wave, with a powerful customer behind it. I think the investigation will find out in whose interests this order is. At the same time, it is important to note that the topic of these mines and these 1.5 billion hryvnias is associated with me thanks to an organized information wave, but almost nowhere is the name of the person who was supposed to fulfill this contract, that is, the head of the Lviv Arsenal... It seems that this wave is aimed at changing the focus from the real perpetrator of this story to the officials of the Ministry of Defense in order to mitigate the fate of the real perpetrator," the former Defense Ministry official said.

Recall

At the end of January , the Security Service of Ukraine exposed a scheme to embezzle public funds during the purchase of ammunition. The officials in question were officials of the Ministry of Defense and managers of the Lviv Arsenal. According to the investigation, the criminals tried to steal almost 1.5 billion budget hryvnias for the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for the Armed Forces.

As part of this case, Liev was detained on January 27, but the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court refused to apply a preventive measure to him.

February 3, 2023 Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced the resignation of the acting head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Armaments and Military Equipment, Oleksandr Liev, at his own request.