On 28 February, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine published annexes to contracts on the cost of catering services for the Armed Forces, as well as prices for products in the catalogue purchased by suppliers.
According to the ministry, this approach will be applied to other agreements related to logistics. In particular, regarding military uniforms, fuel and lubricants, and so on.
The relevant information will be published without information about the numbers of military units, their locations and the number of personnel.
According to the data published by the Ministry of Defence, the cost of daily meals ranged from UAH 137.04 to UAH 144.06 (previously UAH 145.80). At the same time, the price of eggs of both the first and the highest grade is 8-9 UAH, pasta ranges from 35.70 to 42.30 UAH per kilogram, the price per kilogram of fresh potatoes ranges from 12.60 to 17.70 UAH, a kilogram of fresh early potatoes costs from 16.90 to 40 UAH, and chicken thigh costs from 90.96 to 108 UAH per kilogram.
One of the annexes:
The press service noted that the Ministry of Defence does not purchase products from the list, but rather a service for organizing meals for a military unit, which, in addition to the food itself, includes logistics, etc: receiving, storing, moving, refreshing food stocks, issuing food, accounting for it, preparing meals in stationary and field conditions, providing fuel for cooking equipment, maintaining food service facilities (canteens, warehouses), equipment and property in proper condition and servicing them, reimbursing utility costs and other activities, according to requests from military unit commanders in the places specified in the requests.
All of these costs are included in the price of the products, without any separate charges for other specified services. The price reduction was achieved by shortening the contract terms, which eliminated the need for suppliers to take into account inflation and other risks.
In January, journalists published data that the Ministry of Defence allegedly buys food for military personnel at two to three times the price of food in Kyiv stores.
The Ministry of Defence stated that the information on the content of catering services procurement disseminated in the public space is being spread with signs of deliberate manipulation and is misleading.