Pashynsky says spreading disinformation undermining Ukraine's defense capability should be criminal
The head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on national security and defense, People's Front Party MP Serhiy Pashynsky, has said that he initiated the preparation of amendments to the legislation providing for liability, including criminal liability, for the spread of untrue information that undermines Ukraine's defense capability.
"We have already consulted with many factions in parliament. I ask our deputies headed by Mr. Vinnyk [BPP MP Ivan Vinnyk], together with the committee on freedom of expression, to work out additions to the current legislation on liability, including criminal liability, for undermining defense capability through the spread of deliberately untrue data," he said at a meeting of the committee on national security and defense in Kyiv on Wednesday, where a scandal was being discussed around the publication in the Novoye Vremya magazine of an article about possible abuse during procurement in the defense sector.
Pashynsky also called for the extension of the statute of limitations of offenses related to the embezzlement of the army.
According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, the parliamentary committee on national security considered the situation surrounding the publication in the Novoye Vremya magazine about abuses in procurement in the defense sector. Pashynsky appeared in the journalistic investigation.
The discussion was attended by leaders from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ukroboronprom State Concern.
At the same time, representatives of Novoye Vremya and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine did not participate in the discussion.
Pashynsky called the information published a "provocation" and noted that there was very little truth in the article.
Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Pavlovsky, in turn, spoke about the estimated cost of one IFV under a contract worth $169,000, which is UAH 4.379 million.
According to him, the IFV body costs $99,000, the towers with weapons $66,000, and the cost of work at Zhytomyr Armor Plant is $4,000.
Pavlovsky noted that there were no proposals on an infantry fighting vehicle at a price lower than this.
Serhiy Omelchenko, the first deputy director general of the Ukroboronprom concern, when asked by Pashynsky why they bought IFVs not directly in the Czech Republic, but through a Polish company, said: "Why were they disassembled? Because the arms transfer system in the European Union... is subject to very concrete export control. It is sensitive to political events in the world and in the European Union itself. This is why we received constant refusals in the supply of these types of weapons."
At the same time, a member of the committee, BPP MP Ivan Vinnyk, added that the only way to get an EU export license is a license for a demilitarized sample.
In addition, when asked by Pashynsky whether the parties to the contract spoke with him on this deal earlier, the heads of the Defense Ministry, Ukroboronprom, Wtorplast, a Polish company also appearing in the article, answered negatively.