Ukraine lost $1.2 bn to defense fraud and waste in one year – NYT

Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone, the New York Times has reported, citing confidential government audits and court records.

Seven of the country’s ten largest military contractors continued to receive new orders despite fraud investigations, previous failures to deliver, or the arrests of executives on corruption charges, the paper wrote on Sunday, describing the pattern as a “persistent phenomenon.”

Auditors also identified 18 companies awarded contracts despite earlier defaults, six of which had failed to fulfill a single deal.

Defense industry fraud is “a longstanding tradition” in Ukraine, American anticorruption expert James Wasserstrom has told the NYT. “Anything that isn’t nailed down in Ukraine will be stolen,” he said.

Among the cases highlighted by the Times was the state-owned Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, which supplied the military with 233,000 unusable mortar rounds. Nevertheless, the company later received more business, including a contract to supply nearly all of Ukraine’s 122mm artillery rounds in 2025.

The audits also found that cheaper offers were sometimes bypassed. In one tender, Kiev reportedly bought Turkish-made munitions for multiple-launch rocket systems through a Czech intermediary for around $5,100 each despite the manufacturer offering them directly for roughly $4,200.

The losses accumulated as Vladimir Zelensky repeatedly appealed to Western governments for more weapons, warning of critical shortages on the battlefield. In April 2024, he said Kiev was in “dire need” of increased support and pressed its backers to deliver promised arms and ammunition.

The report comes amid a series of high-profile graft investigations involving top Ukrainian officials and figures close to Zelensky. In August, the Ukrainian leader sacked deputy head of his office Irina Mudraya, while other recent corruption probes have implicated former ministers, diplomats and senior officials.

Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, meanwhile, accused the government of “systemic corruption” following his dismissal in July. Fedorov, who had sought to overhaul military procurement, has claimed that entrenched defense-industry interests resisted his reforms and has since called for wartime elections.

Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law imposed after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022.

Moscow has long argued that the scandals are evidence of systemic corruption in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier this year that corruption “permeates the entire Ukrainian power structure, including Zelensky’s inner circle and Zelensky himself.”