Ihor Pavlovskiy, former deputy defense minister and high-ranking military general, has been detained on charges of embezzlement in hardware supplies.
The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv on July 12 ruled to put Pavlovsky in jail for 2 months, setting the bail at Hr 475 million ($17.4 million).
According to Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (GBR), Pavlovsky has become the fourth individual detained as part of the corruption case.
“The officials are suspected of a conspiracy to supply military formations with low-quality hardware in 2016-2018,” the agency said. “The case is about patrol boats and ambulances that do not meet the established standards and can not be operated at the Armed Forces. In general, the state sustained losses of over Hr 475 million due to the case defendants’ deeds.”
Pavlovsky vowed to appeal the court ruling and refused to pay the bail.
According to earlier reports, the case focuses on two Kentavr-class landing boats that Kuznya Na Rybalskomy, a Kyiv-based shipyard previously owned by former President Petro Poroshenko, produced and supplied to the country’s Defense Ministry.
The GBR says the vessels were admitted for service after no official tests and did not meet standard requirements. The investigation also reportedly revealed that Pavlovsky and his subordinates had greenlighted the procurement of ambulance vehicles from Bogdan Corporation, an automobile manufacturer owned by Oleh Hladkovskiy, who has also been facing corruption charges.
The company, once of the country’s top defense contractors, recently went bankrupt and is now being disbanded.
Earlier, the law enforcers also indicted Valeriy Shandra, a Kuznya Na Rybalskomy representative, as part of the case.
Lieutenant General Pavlovskiy, now 56, served as a deputy defense minister in 2015-2019.
Since October 2017, he has been under a criminal investigation into the alleged embezzlement of Hr 149 million ($5.4 million) allocated for the procurement of fuel for the military.
He was indicted and put on home detention. In November 2017, a court granted him bail upon the request of two distinguished combat veterans, Oleksandr Porkhun and Ihor Herasymenko.
