The Accounting Chamber identified nearly 350 billion hryvnia in irregularities in defense procurement
UA NEWS28
August
2026
13:48
During an audit of arms and military equipment procurement for 2024–2025, the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine identified violations and irregularities totaling nearly 350 billion hryvnia. At the same time, over 90% of all contracts were awarded without competitive bidding procedures.
The audit covered the activities of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Administration of the State Border Guard Service, and the State Enterprise “Defense Procurement Agency” for 2025, as well as the collection of receivables for 2024.
Non-Competitive Procurement and Legislative Changes
According to the Accounting Chamber, legislation governing defense procurement was amended 95 times during the period of martial law. At the same time, strategic planning for weapons development and certain procurement regulation mechanisms remained insufficiently regulated.
Overall, the audit identified irregularities at key stages of the procurement cycle: from needs assessment and pricing to quality control and advance payment management. The total value of the identified irregularities amounted to nearly 350 billion hryvnias.
Competitive procedures were rarely used. Of the total procurement volume of 614 billion hryvnias, more than 90% (nearly 580 billion hryvnias) was carried out without competitive bidding. In addition, equipment was purchased at prices exceeding the standards set by the Defense Procurement List.
Debts and International Lawsuits
As of January 1, 2026, accounts receivable under contracts for the development and procurement of weapons and military equipment (WME) totaled 367 billion hryvnia. Of this amount, 66 billion hryvnia was past-due debt.
Claims proceedings proved largely ineffective: courts reduced the amount of enforceable penalties by 5.9 billion UAH (over 66% of the claims’ value), and of 45 arbitration awards issued abroad, 42 (93%) remained unenforced.
“Every stage of defense procurement—determining weapons requirements and planning financial resources, selecting the procurement procedure, determining its price, concluding and executing the contract, quality control, managing advance payments and accounts receivable, protecting the state’s property interests, and responding to force majeure circumstances—is not a formality and not merely a legal requirement,” — emphasized Hennadiy Plis, the member of the Accounting Chamber responsible for the audit.
At the same time, in response to the issues identified during the audit, overdue accounts receivable were reduced by 62 billion hryvnias in the first half of 2026. More than 100 million hryvnias in overpaid funds under a state-guaranteed contract were returned to the state budget.
Thiswas reported bythe press service of the state financial control agency.
The Ministry of Defense has simplified logisticalprocurement.
Operational control over the media portal “Censor.net”has been transferred toOleksandrKonotopskyi, a business partner of Defense Minister MykhailoFedorov.
New detailsare emergingin connection with Mykhailo Fedorov’s resignation from the post of defense minister and the IT millionaires close to him.
