It would have been an ordinary Ukrainian story: Officials and their associates accused of embezzling money on procurements and using procedural trickery to avoid criminal charges.

The difference is in the body count. The officials worked for the Defense Ministry and were supposed to procure 100,000 mortar shells by February 2023. None ever materialized. This alleged Hr 1.5 billion ($39.6 million) scheme coincided with a severe ammunition deficiency at the peak of the bloodiest battle of the full-scale war.

Ukrainians who fought in Bakhmut described facing down unending Russian attacks while wrestling with severe shortages of fire support. Some mortarmen at Bakhmut said they got just 10 shells per day, enough for several minutes of shooting. Total casualties are not known to the public but one unit said it was down to half strength in two months.

“20,000 rounds should have been delivered when there was hell around Bakhmut but none ever were. And there was a real shortage of mortar rounds in that area,” watchdog Anti-Corruption Action Center head Vitaliy Shabunin told the Kyiv Independent.

Worse, the intermediary firms and people involved may have ties with Russia, according to an investigation by Hromadske.