Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), under the procedural leadership of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), have detained a deputy defense minister and the director of the department of state procurement and supply of material resources of the Defense Ministry on suspicion of involvement in embezzling over UAH 149 million in state funds during the purchase of fuel for the ministry.

"The bureau's detectives and SAPO prosecutors have currently detained two alleged accomplices in the crime – a deputy defense minister of Ukraine and director of the department of public procurement and supply of material resources of the Defense Ministry. The question of handing a notice of suspicion, choosing a measure of restraint for the detainees and identifying other possible accomplices is being resolved," NABU's press service reported on Wednesday, October 11.

The report notes that on October 11, 2017, NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors conducted a series of searches and detained two officials.

According to investigators, in early 2016, the Defense Ministry's tender committee organized an open bidding procedure for the purchase of liquid fuel. Following the trade on April 26, 2016, the committee on 14 lots approved for payment the proposals of one of the bidders as most economically profitable. On May 13 and May 18, 2016, the Defense Ministry and the winner of the bidding signed 14 contracts for the supply of fuel for special purpose vehicles at the expense of the state budget for a total of over UAH 1 billion.

According to a preliminary investigation, in the period from June to August 2016, in the absence of any legal grounds for amending the contracts for the procurement of goods for budgetary funds, the customer and supplier concluded a number of additional agreements, according to which the price per unit of goods was unreasonably increased by an average of 16% of the initial price.

"As a result, budget funds worth UAH 149.339 million were transferred unjustifiably and illegally in favor of the supplier," the report says.

Investigators believe that according to established facts, officials of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, under preliminary agreement with representatives of a commercial enterprise, committed a crime envisaged by Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or possession of property through abuse of office).

A source told Interfax-Ukraine that Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Pavlovsky was detained on Wednesday.

"Pavlovsky was detained today. It was he who was engaged in procuring resources," the source said.

The name of the second detainee was not confirmed, however, Hromadske TV, referring to its sources, said the issue concerned the director of the ministry's department of state procurement, Volodymyr Hulevych.

Bloc of Petro Poroshenko MP Serhiy Leschenko, in turn, whote on his Facebook page that the detentions in the Defense Ministry and the criminal case were connected with the Trade Commodity company.