The Ministry of Defense is purchasing army boots at inflated prices

The overpayment amount in just one tender has reached over 287,000 euros. The latest tender for the purchase of winter boots for the Armed Forces concluded with a contract signed in December last year. The contract sum was 1.6 million euros for 25,000 pairs of footwear.

Awarded without competition and without price reduction, the contract was given to the company “TALANLEGPROM.” This company has already sold footwear to the Ministry of Defense for over 7.8 million euros. The active engagement and multimillion-dollar contracts for this company began in July 2023. It is owned by LLC Lavrikov Family (Andrey and Oksana) and is part of the larger “TALAN” group of companies.

Now let’s do the math. The price of one pair of winter high boots, meeting the Ministry of Defense’s standard, is 65 euros. However, the same boots by TALAN are sold on various marketplaces in Ukraine for 47 euros per pair. Therefore, the overpayment by the Ministry of Defense for one pair of boots amounts to at least 23 euros, totaling 300,000 euros for a quantity of 25,000 pairs.