In Odesa, city council officials are suspected of embezzling 2 million to be spent on burying soldiers

More than 2 million hryvnias, which were supposed to be used to erect monuments to soldiers, were withdrawn through fictitious amounts - city council officials, utility workers and businessmen are suspected.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, these are city council officials, employees of one of Odesa's utility companies, and local businessmen. According to the investigation, from 2023 to 2024, they overestimated the cost of services for the installation of tombstones and burial arrangements.

"According to this scheme, they seized half of the allocated budget - more than UAH 2.1 million, which was intended for the construction of 88 monuments ," the statement said.

Under the procedural supervision of prosecutors from the Prosecutor General's Office, five members of the organized group were served a notice of suspicion of misappropriation of property on a large scale. Pre-trial restraints have been imposed on all five suspects. Law enforcement officers continue to identify other members of the conspiracy.

Earlier, the Southern Interregional Territorial Department of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine stated that the ritual service of theAvangardkomunservice utility company charged for ritual services for digging graves for burying a coffin and for ritual services for digging graves for burying an urn with ashes at inflated rates. The utility included a 20% value-added tax in the tariffs, which is contrary to the requirements of the current Ukrainian legislation in the field of burial.

Instead, the Tax Code of Ukraine defines burial services and the supply of funeral goods by state and municipal services, which, among other things, include grave digging services and the burial of an urn with ashes in a grave, as tax-exempt transactions. Therefore, the utility was fined a total of UAH 77,606.

Олеся Ланцман