Ukrainian military prosecutors are conducting a thorough inquiry into the former defense ministers on the subject of undermining the country's defensive capabilities, said Anatoliy Matios, Ukraine's military prosecutor general.
‘The Military Prosecutor’s Office has launched a criminal inquiry into professional misconduct by senior officials in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and members of the General Staff, who signed documents which led to us having six brigades on paper, of which we eventually gathered 400 people,’ Matios told reporters on Oct. 7.
The following ex-defense ministers are being investigated on the subject of action or inaction while in office: Volodymyr Shkidchenko, Yevhen Marchuk, Oleksandr Kuzmuk, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Yuriy Yekhanurov, Mykhailo Yezhel, Dmytro Salamatin, Pavlo Lebedev, and the ex-chiefs of the Army General Staff: Petro Shuliak, Oleksandr Zatynaiko, Serghiy Kyrychenko, Ivan Svyda, Hryhoriy Pedchenko, and Volodymyr Zamana, the military prosecutor said.
The former defense ministers are being investigated on the subject of the closing down of electronic-warfare units, which left parts of the national border without radio-electronic protection, and the closing down of engineering units which led to the army being unable to repair damaged equipment and infrastructure.
Following the merger of the Air Defense and Air Force, no AF command post was capable of controlling all elements, and switching to the outsourcing of life-sustaining services in the Armed Forces led to bases and arsenals being significantly remote from garrisons.
The past four years alone saw over 600 legal changes which have effectively ruined the integral functioning system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the prosecutor said.
‘All this was done during the time of these defense ministers, each one of them contributed,’ Matios said.
