Defective ammo supply to Ukrainian military: inspection reveals about 24,000 low-quality mines

Ukraine's Ministry of Strategic Industries reported the information.

In total, Ukrainian defense companies have supplied millions of artillery and mortar rounds to the Defense Forces since the beginning of 2024. At the same time, on November 20, one of the manufacturing plants received a claim for 120-mm mines from the Logistics Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Ministry assured that they had already addressed these shortcomings before this complaint. In particular, the mines of the latest batches were re-inspected.

"Back on November 8, the Ministry of Strategic Industries issued an order to conduct an inspection involving officials from the Ministry of Strategic Industries, the Ministry of Defense, the manufacturer, the Armed Forces Research Institute, and the Security Service of Ukraine," the statement says.

The working group operated from November 11 to 15 and concluded that there was indeed an abnormal operation of several components of the product. As a result, some of the shots were of inadequate quality.

Currently, about 24,000 mines out of a total of 54,000 mines suspected of malfunctioning are subject to return. However, the government noted that this is less than 1% of the products manufactured this year.

In accordance with the Act of the Commission, the low-quality batch of 120-mm mines is currently being replaced. In addition, manufacturing plants are strengthening product quality control at all stages of production, starting with the receipt of purchased components.

"At the same time, all Ukrainian defense industry enterprises continue to operate as usual: to manufacture and supply high-quality weapons and military equipment to the Defense Forces. The situation around low-quality mines has also become an additional incentive for all manufacturers to be more careful about quality control of their products at all stages of production," said the head of the Ministry, Herman Smetanin.

What is known on defective ammo supply

On November 20, journalist Yuriy Butusov said that Ukrainian soldiers were supplied with a batch of low-quality mines manufactured by Ukroboronprom.

Later, on November 26, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced that it was investigating the supply of low-quality 120-mm mines to the Ukrainian army. At the same time, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal investigation.

The preliminary results of the interagency commission's investigation showed that possible defects in the mines could include poor-quality powder charges or a violation of ammunition storage conditions that led to their damage.