Former Ukrainian Defense Ministry official to face trial over 300,000 unusable gloves for the armed forces

The prosecutor’s office has submitted an indictment against Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the former acting director of the Department of Public Procurement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

According to investigators, due to his negligence the army received 300,000 pairs of tactical gloves unfit for their intended use. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced this on social media.

The case concerns an episode in which the Ministry of Defense concluded contracts for the supply of military uniforms worth more than 231 million hryvnias. Khmelnytsky was responsible for conducting these procurements.

The investigation established that when the contracts were concluded, requirements for mandatory compliance of the products with Ministry of Defense standards were removed from the documentation. In addition, the product specifications were altered and advance payment was approved without proper justification.

As a result, the army received gloves that did not meet the established requirements. Expert examinations confirmed that the items did not provide adequate protection for servicemembers and were unfit for their intended purpose. Instead of the thermoplastic rubber specified in the technical conditions, the gloves were made from ordinary rubber and failed basic cut and puncture resistance tests — to say nothing of use in real-world conditions such as assaults, shelling, or the evacuation of the wounded.

The damage to the state amounted to more than 231 million hryvnias.

In August 2025, the former official was notified of his suspect status. The pre-trial investigation was conducted by the SBU. The investigation has now been completed and the indictment has been submitted to the court.