New suspicions over non-payment of UAH 21 million VAT on import of components for explosives for the Ministry of Defense
Kyiv • UNN
The director of a private company has been notified of suspicion of tax evasion. Three customs officials are charged with official negligence for importing components without paying VAT.
Law enforcement officers have announced new suspicions as part of the investigation into the supply of low-quality engineering munitions and raw materials for the needs of the Ministry of Defense. It concerns over 21 million hryvnias of unpaid VAT during the import of components for explosives. This was reported by UNN with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Details
At the beginning of this year, law enforcement agencies stopped the activities of a criminal organization. As the investigation established, its participants embezzled almost 3 billion hryvnias of budget funds.
The money was allocated for the purchase of engineering munitions for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.
According to the investigation, during 2024–2025, the director of a private company that produced explosive devices for the Defense Forces organized the import of relevant components into Ukraine using forged and false documents. False information about the characteristics of the goods, their purpose, and the end consumer was submitted to customs authorities, which allowed for the unjustified use of tax benefits for defense goods and the avoidance of mandatory payments
Investigators established that the imported explosive substance was declared as a finished explosive material, but in fact it was subject to taxation at a rate of 20%. As a result, the state budget lost over 21.3 million hryvnias in VAT.
The director of the company has been notified of suspicion of tax evasion on an especially large scale (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
At the same time, three customs officials have been notified of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. According to the investigation, they failed to ensure proper control during the customs clearance of products and allowed their import without paying mandatory taxes.