Not just quantity: how the Ministry of Defense controls the quality of troop supplies
11 April 15:07
During the first week of April, the Central Quality Control Department of the Ministry of Defense, together with representatives of the Territorial Management Centers, accepted property for the Defense Forces worth more than UAH 1 billion, and only 2.3% of this amount, worth UAH 26 million, was rejected. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense, Komersant ukrainskyi informs.
These figures gave the Ministry of Defense grounds to talk about improving the quality of the Defense Forces’ material support.
What has contributed to the quality improvement?
According to the defense ministry, this was made possible by several innovations:
– increasing the share of Ukrainian producers in government contracts, which contributed to the quality of products;
– implementation of a system of re-testing of goods in laboratories, developed in cooperation with the NGO Statewatch, which helps to detect falsification of test reports;
– use of photo and video recording of discrepancies in deliveries, which provides additional independent quality control.
What else helps to improve the quality of the material assets
Meeting the material needs of the Defense Forces is the responsibility of the State Logistics Operator (SLO). It supplies food, clothing and fuel and lubricants for the needs of the military.
It was in 2025 that the State Logistics Operator, for example, strengthened control over compliance with the production schedules of suppliers of materiel. Visits to enterprises have become regular.
“In addition to documentary evidence, we want to see the process with our own eyes. This allows us to respond quickly to potential risks, which, unfortunately, occurred in 2024. We are now systematically monitoring the availability of materials, the pace of order fulfillment, and the compliance of products with approved standards,” says Victoria Vinogradova, DOT’s material property program director.
In case of violations, a corresponding report is drawn up. If the supplier systematically fails to fulfill its obligations, DOT has the right to unilaterally terminate the contract. In this case, the supplier will lose the opportunity to participate in future procurements.
The DOT, together with partner organizations and experts , has also developed a new technical specification for suppliers who supply material property for the 2025 budget. It contains clear requirements for the acceptance, packaging and labeling of property that optimize logistics processes, reduce unloading time and reduce the burden on the Armed Forces’ support centers.
The State Logistics Operator has also simplified the process of handling claims for military units. From now on, the DOT-CHAIN IT system allows them to file complaints about the quality of products. The system automatically pulls up the necessary information based on the relevant order – the military unit only needs to add information about the fact of defective goods.
This allows not only to significantly reduce the time for generating and processing such complaints, but also, most importantly, to improve the level of food supply to the Armed Forces.
How much does it cost the state to provide the troops with supplies?
In the first quarter of 2025, the Ministry of Defense’s procurement agency, the State Logistics Operator, contracted logistics property worth UAH 44.8 billion.
“This is almost 66% of the total funding for 2025, which amounts to UAH 67.6 billion,” said Hlib Kanevskyi, Director of the Procurement Policy Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
In particular, UAH 21.4 billion worth of food, UAH 16.4 billion worth of clothing, and UAH 7 billion worth of fuel and lubricants have been contracted.
A significant amount of personal protective equipment has also been contracted. In total, agreements were signed for UAH 3.8 billion, including UAH 3.1 billion for bulletproof vests, UAH 0.7 billion for helmets, and UAH 0.1 billion for tactical goggles. This allowed us to provide the units with the necessary protective equipment in a timely manner.
