In Odesa, a supplier of low-quality products for the National Guard was sent to a detention center

A court in Odesa has remanded in custody the director of a company suspected of fraudulently supplying low-quality products to the National Guard. Investigators believe that the scheme caused losses to the state of more than UAH 7 million, and the total amount of transfers under the contract reached UAH 97 million.

This is stated in the ruling of the Peresypskyi District Court of Odesa.

The court imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention on the director of Foodgrand, who is suspected of a large-scale fraud involving the supply of low-quality products to the National Guard of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, in October 2024, the suspect uploaded forged documents to the state platform Prozorro for the supply of 270 thousand kilograms of butter. Despite the lack of real goods and necessary documents, the company was recognized as the winner of the tender. In November, a contract was signed between the National Guard military unit and Foodgrand LLC, under which the company began to supply products of inadequate quality with fake letters of guarantee.

Subsequently, the company received UAH 7 million 188 thousand from the military unit. In total, under the contract, the National Guard transferred UAH 97 million to the company's account.

On August 21, 2025, the company's director was notified of suspicion of fraud on a particularly large scale and the use of forged documents. She was detained by the SBI. Investigators found that after being exposed, the woman tried to avoid responsibility by re-registering the company to another person and changing its legal address.

In court, the suspect and her defense attorneys objected to the investigators' motion, arguing that she had no connection to the company for the past three months, was unemployed and unable to post a substantial bail. At the same time, the investigators insisted that there were risks of destroying evidence and putting pressure on witnesses.

The court agreed with the prosecution's arguments and decided to keep the defendant in custody in the Odesa pre-trial detention center until October 19, 2025 inclusive. The bail was set at UAH 908,400. If this amount is paid, the suspect may be released from custody, but she will be imposed with duties for two months. If proven guilty, the company director faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

According to YouControl, the company was registered in 2022 with a registered capital of one thousand hryvnias in Poltava. The company managed to earn 1.1 billion hryvnias in public procurement. The company has repeatedly been the subject of journalistic investigations into inflated prices and the supply of products to the Armed Forces since its foundation. According to media reports, the company's director is Natalia Khubova, and it was among the top 10 companies that feed the army.

The investigation into the case of millions of overpayments for firewood for the military in Mykolaiv was complicated by the fact that all four suppliers re-registered their companies to fictitious foreigners. The scheme involved Oleksandr Martsokha, the head of the Kyiv Energy Management Company, who involved the head of the fuel group and an authorized person of the company in the fraud.

Анна Бальчінос