Ukraine says 120,000 useless mortars have returned to its front lines after manufacturers try to cut costs

• Ukraine said it discovered a conspiracy and ended up sending it to the troops with 120,000 bad mortar shells.

• Its security department said a defense plant is trying to cut costs by intentionally using cheap parts.

• Officials were arrested four times because Ukraine still struggled to keep its ammunition flowing.

Ukraine's Internal Security Agency said on Tuesday it detained four people after investigating 120,000 defective mortar shells supplying to its troops.

The Ukrainian Security Agency (also known as the SBU) wrote on its telegram channel that the arrested included a military official, a quality control official and the head of two defense manufacturing operations.

The news comes six months after Ukrainian media reported complaints from some frontline units that their 120mm mortar shells will not be fired or exploded.

In the November virus video, a soldier said that only about one-tenth of the turn will make it stand out from the launcher and effectively detonate. At that time, Ukrainian journalists reported that up to 100,000 shells were to be recalled.

The SBU said it investigated a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk area, home to the main city of Dnipro, and found four arrested people conspiring to “supply defective mortar shells to the frontline.”

“For mass production, the suspects used unqualified materials and carried out defective processes, resulting in failure to get started with major Holland and unstable performance across the propellant costs,” the SBU statement said.

The security department did not name the arrested person, but it accused all four of them of conspiring to “reduce production costs to increase their profits.”

Military and quality control officials “deliberately ignore” defective ammunition and forged records to cover up the plan, SBU said.

“So, 120,000 unusable shells have arrived at the front line,” it added. The SBU said that if convicted, four detainees would face 15 years in prison.

As the war has fallen into an extended battle of loss, shells are the key to Ukrainian defense. One of Kiev's most pressing problems is the pressure of war on the number of soldiers it can bear at one time, and it faces the challenge of whether to lower its draft requirements to include 18-year-old men.

But Ukraine is also trying to prevent ammunition shortages, with Europe and the United States always oversupply. In a hurry, Kiev has been working to improve its local defensive manufacturing site, which has already launched millions of first-person drones.

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