In Mykolaiv Oblast, the head of a department is suspected of embezzling more than €27,700 allocated for firewood for the Ukrainian Armed Forces

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has completed a pre-trial investigation into the head of the Mykolaiv Quartering and Housing (Kwartyrno-Exploitation) Administration. The official is accused of embezzling 1.4 million hryvnias (about €27,700) in state funds intended for the country’s defense needs.

The SBI reported this.

To meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the official was supposed to procure firewood under a mobilization assignment. Instead of working directly with forestry enterprises, he allegedly set up a scheme using a front company. The wood was bought from the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” at market price and then resold to the state administration at double the price. Investigators say the head of the administration unlawfully appropriated funds through this arrangement.

An indictment has already been sent to court under the procedural supervision of the Mykolaiv Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office. To secure compensation for the losses, the former official’s property has been seized.

The suspect has been dismissed from his position. He is charged with embezzlement on an especially large scale committed by a group of persons under martial law. Under Part 5 of Article 191 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, he faces up to 12 years in prison.

Separately, the SBI and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention reported finding unjustified assets worth nearly 3 million hryvnias (about €59,400) in the family of the head of one department of the Strategic Investigations Directorate of the National Police in Odesa region.

These assets include vehicles — a 2016 Lexus ES 250, a 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 CDI, and a 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLE 350D — which were purchased between 2000 and 2021 by the official’s mother, father, and mother-in-law. However, investigators say the police officer and his wife were the actual users of the vehicles.