Ukraine transferred $770 million in advance for weapons it never received – FT

Over the three years of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has transferred $770 million in advance payments to foreign arms suppliers, but a significant portion of the weapons and ammunition has never been delivered, the Financial Times reports, according to Economic Truth.

The British newspaper in its article refers to documents of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and internal materials that came into its possession.

The publication tells the story of Tanner Cook, a 28-year-old Arizona resident who owns a small gun shop on the outskirts of Tucson. In 2022, his company OTL received a contract worth 49 million euros to supply ammunition to the Ukrainian army.

Ukraine transferred 17.1 million euros as an advance payment, but never received the promised ammunition. Despite the arbitration decision in Vienna in favor of the Ukrainian side, the money has not yet been returned.

Another situation concerns the company Regulus, with which a contract worth $1.7 billion was signed. The state-owned company Spetstechnoexport claims to have paid $162.6 million in advance payments and deposits for the fulfillment of part of the contract for the supply of 155-mm shells. In addition, the company made other payments of 14 million euros.

But, according to the Ukrainian state-owned company, Regulus violated the terms of the contract and still has not returned the money to Kyiv.

According to the newspaper, the situation is also complicated by corruption scandals: several officials responsible for defense procurement have already been fired, and some have been charged. Dozens of contracts are under investigation for suspected abuse.

According to Ukrainian court records, in one case, in April 2022, the state-owned company Ukrspetsexport purchased 120mm mortars from suppliers in Sudan. It later emerged that these sellers had close ties to the Russian FSB and Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner PMC.

By the way, according to the independent international institute SIPRI, Ukraine's military spending in 2024 increased by 2.9% compared to 2023 and reached $64.7 billion. This is equivalent to 43% of Russia's military spending.