Lviv Territorial Defense suspected of embezzling €730.6 thousand in combat payments

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Police have uncovered an official who fraudulently allocated 35 million hryvnias in “combat” payments to a rear battalion in the Lviv region.

This was reported by the SBU.

According to the investigation, the chief of staff of a battalion in one of the Territorial Defense Forces units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the Lviv region had been illegally assigning combat bonuses of 100,000 UAH (€2087) per month to his subordinates for six months. These payments were justified by claims that the soldiers were serving on the front lines, when in reality they were stationed in the rear.

To facilitate this scheme, the official submitted false reports stating that the unit’s personnel were engaged in frontline combat operations.

“Based on these documents, the unit’s financial department allocated monthly additional payments of 100,000 UAH to the soldiers. However, in reality, the unit was operating in rear areas and was not on the front line,” the report says.

Previously, media outlets had reported that a former commander of one of the territorial defense brigades allocated nearly one million hryvnias in payments to his wife for fictitious participation in combat operations.