A large-scale military property theft scheme has been uncovered in the Kharkov region, according to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The case centers on a former deputy commander of a military unit in the region. Investigators say that between 2022 and 2024, a network of companies and individual entrepreneurs controlled by two people supplied armored vehicle parts to defense industry enterprises worth more than 350 million hryvnias, or about $7.7 million.

Part of those components, according to the bureau, had previously been stored at a military unit in the Kharkov region. The property was later listed in documents as supposedly destroyed, before reappearing in the supply chain.

NABU says the scheme was assisted by the former deputy commander of the unit. Investigators believe he received at least 2.8 million hryvnias, around $62,000, from one of the organizers in return.

The former deputy commander has now been charged with stealing military property and receiving an improper benefit.