Call of the Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikova neither deputy Anastasia Radina nor journalist Mykhailo Tkach accepted. Therefore, their accusations of replacing summer jackets for military personnel with winter ones were not true.
Oleksiy Reznikov stated this in a comment.
“My sincere condolences to all who believed them unconditionally and shared their findings. It is completely irresponsible to hastily publish unverified information about the supply of the armed forces during the war. The discrediting of Ukraine, which the progressive community complains about, was done by our own hands. When we thoughtlessly reproduce any fake with the word “corruption”, we are fooling our own people, we are helping the enemy, we are stopping military support for Ukraine,” the minister emphasized.
He proposed to “stop friendly fire and start thinking about what we write and say.”
Reznikov told that Ministry of Defence purchased 180,000 winter jackets. The jackets were handed over to the Armed Forces last year. There were no complaints about them from the military. The delivery price is “absolutely adequate for the market and the situation at the time”: the shortage of clothing on the market and the need to urgently clothe as many military personnel as possible. Each jacket cost 86 dollars (which now corresponds to 3,177 hryvnias).
“Why some Turkish documents list the price of a winter jacket at $29 (now it’s 1,072 hryvnias) – I don’t know. It may be about tax evasion in Turkey. In any case, this is not Ukraine’s problem. I suggest everyone who wants to drive to Turkey and buy a batch of winter jackets for 1,072 hryvnias, and that it should be in a few weeks. Come back,” said the minister.
According to him, “without the accusation of changing winter jackets to summer ones, there is nothing left in the “investigation”. No one is ready to bear responsibility for this accusation.”
“I ask all journalists who spread information about the purchase of summer jackets instead of winter ones to remove unverified materials, publish the official position of the Ministry of Defense regarding this purchase and wait for the analysis of the situation. As far as I know, it is already being dealt with in an independent public body – the GAR of the Ministry of Defense. We will also provide journalists with all the information about this purchase. I also ask everyone in advance to refrain from “investigations”, which obviously have no intention to understand the situation. Understanding what a powerful force the free press and freedom of speech are, one must treat it very responsibly. And this responsibility is the main contribution of journalists to our joint victory,” Reznikov emphasized.
