Case description
On December 13, 2023, the HACC convicted former Defense Ministry official Kostiantyn Stupak, who concluded unprofitable food supply deals for the Armed Forces. He was sentenced to 2 years of probation.
Between December 2020 and January 2021, Kostiantyn Stupak, who was then the de facto head of the Ministry of Defense's public procurement department, signed contracts for the procurement of catering services for the Armed Forces in 2021.
According to the investigation, later on the instructions of the ex-deputy minister of defense Ihor Halimon, he illegally signed eight additional agreements with suppliers on unfavorable terms. Namely, the suppliers were no longer supposed to transport products and replenish the intact food stocks of the Armed Forces in a timely manner. Instead, it was up to the Armed Forces to spend the resources of personnel and to attract equipment for this.
This caused additional costs during the redistribution of non-perishable food stocks—total losses are estimated at almost UAH 12 million. In addition, a potential threat to the national security of Ukraine was caused in a special period, the combat readiness and defense capability of the Armed Forces decreased.
Stupak was charged with Art. 114-1, part 1 and Art. 364, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The accused concluded a plea agreement, so instead of a real 5-year prison term, he was sentenced to 2 years of probation and a fine of UAH 17,000 with a 2-year ban on holding certain positions. In addition, the ex-official voluntarily reimbursed UAH 100,000 and undertook to pay another UAH 300,000 within the next 3 months.
