Ukrainian law enforcement detains former senior military official responsible for food supply to Ukrainian forces

Officers of Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), acting in cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), have brought to light a case of skimming perpetrated by the former head of the Central Food Supply Department of the Logistics Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.,

Source: SBI; PGO; Ukrainska Pravda

Details: The law enforcement report didn't specify the military officer's name. However, Ukrainska Pravda found it to be Oleksandr Kozlovskyi.

The investigation suggests that the official acquired unexplained assets worth almost UAH 58 million [roughly US$1.49 million] in 2022-2023. These include a Toyota vehicle, a flat in Kyiv, 53 plots of land in Ukraine and other properties.

In addition, the firms controlled by the official acquired a 2000-square-metre warehouse and a facility used by an experimental prosthetic and orthopaedic company.

The sum of illegally acquired funds exceeds his legitimate income by the equivalent of 6,500 tax-free minimum incomes (the amount of money a Ukrainian worker can earn above which additional income would be subject to taxation), the PGO noted.

Kozlovskyi, the suspect in the graft case, has been detained, and may be remanded in custody pending trial.

A search is currently underway at the former official's residence.

The court ordered that the illegally acquired assets be seized, the prosecutor's office added.

Background: In September 2023, Ukrainska Pravda reported that Ukraine's Security Service and the National Police had searched Kozlovskyi's home.

A Ukrainska Pravda source said that Colonel Kozlovskyi, along with his wife and her parents, had committed fraud in the purchasing of rations for military units in four oblasts of Ukraine. For this purpose, they set up several companies through which they supplied food to the military at inflated prices and then pocketed the difference, according to investigators.

The details of Kozlovskyi's "food" case were reported in January 2024 by the news outlet Nashi Hroshi (lit. Our Money).

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