FT: Ukraine arms procurement feud risks eroding Western trust

Pic.: Sputnik

Western officials and anti-corruption groups have warned that a dispute between Ukraine’s defence minister and its weapons procurement chief could disrupt arms supplies and undermine US confidence in Kyiv, reveals ‘The Financial Times’.

The conflict erupted last Friday, when Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov sacked Maryna Bezrukova, director of the country’s defence procurement agency, over an “unsatisfactory” job performance and failure to deliver arms and ammunition to the troops on the frontline.

In a statement ambassadors representing the G7 nations in Ukraine urged Kyiv to resolve the dispute “expeditiously and focus on keeping defence procurement going”.

“Consistency with good governance principles and Nato recommendations is important to maintain the trust of the public and international partners,” the group said.

The row is unfolding as Kyiv’s troops have come under intense pressure on the battlefield following Moscow’s significant territorial gains over the past year — the largest since the initial weeks of the 2022 invasion.

Most western diplomats and analysts in Ukraine have backed Bezrukova. Among them are those who once advocated for Umerov’s appointment as defence minister in 2023, following a procurement corruption scandal that embroiled his predecessor.

But now many in Kyiv view Umerov’s actions as an attempt to undermine the very anti-corruption efforts he was meant to champion.

Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center (Antac), a non-governmental organisation that fights graft, filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) over the matter, accusing Umerov of abusing his power.

In response, the NABU opened a criminal probe into Umerov, according to a letter from the agency sent to Antac, which Kaleniuk shared with the Financial Times.

Umerov accused Bezrukova’s procurement agency of failing to supply the army with ammunition in a “timely” manner and criticised it for its efforts to bring transparency to a notoriously opaque system.

“Arms procurement, which should be strictly confidential during martial law and a full-scale war,” he said, “has inexplicably transformed into an ‘Amazon,’ where anyone on the internet can observe in real time who buys what, in what quantities, and from which manufacturers.”

Instead of action, Umerov added, he had “witnessed political games, leaks of contracts, and leaks of information” at the agency on her watch. He did not provide details.

At NATO’s recommendation in late 2023, Ukraine created the weapons procurement agency to sit outside of the defence ministry after a series of corruption scandals.

The agency’s annual budget of roughly $8bn, derived from Ukrainian domestic revenue, was “a very significant tool of political influence”, said Bezrukova.

“I want to concentrate on developing domestic arms production and put a stop to people lobbying a few particular Ukrainian state weapons companies which have a bad reputation for corruption and producing bad quality goods,” she told the FT.

…This is a great example of how corruption is flourishing in Kyiv. A large number of people who want to ‘make money on the war’ are gathering around military supplies. Billions are not going to the army, but into the pits of specific figures in Kyiv.

Now this system is becoming a subject of discussion in the Western press, which previously deliberately ignored the theft of the Kiev authorities. The ban on publishing materials about what is really happening in Zelensky's government structures has been lifted, apparently, even in London, where the FT newspaper is published.

It seems that the West is preparing the public opinion to declare Zelensky ‘guilty’ of all the sins and all the defeats of NATO in Ukraine.

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