UAH 16.3 billion saved and effective army supply: Key achievements of the DOT’s first year of operation

The Ministry of Defence’s acquisition agency, the State Operator for Non-Lethal Acquisition (DOT), has released a summary of its first year of operations, highlighting key achievements. Over the year, the DOT secured 719 contracts worth a total of UAH 74.6 billion, ensuring that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were supplied with foodstuffs, gear, clothing, fuel, and lubricants.

The State Operator for Non-Lethal Acquisition (DOT) commenced operations on 1 December 2023. Starting in January 2024, the agency began providing the AFU with clothing, gear, and fuel and lubricants, followed by foodstuff supplies from 1 April. Despite a lack of market data, supplier details, and information on procurement volumes in previous years, the DOT specialists established supply chain processes from scratch, opened the market to new suppliers, and maximized transparency in procurement.

Modern procurement approaches enabled the DOT to save the state budget over UAH 16.3 billion. These funds were redirected to address the additional needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“The largest savings were achieved in fuel procurement—nearly UAH 6.6 billion—and in food supply, approximately UAH 6 billion. This is the result of systematic efforts to optimize costs and refine procurement strategies. The DOT has exemplified how modern solutions can transform the army's supply system. Transparency, digitalization, and competition among suppliers are the principles we are implementing to enhance efficiency. "We will continue to advance these changes, as our goal is a reliable and predictable supply system for every service member,” said Glib Kanievskyi, Director of the Procurement Policy Department at the Ministry of Defence.

Key figures and results:

• Contracted: UAH 74.6 billion against an annual requirement of UAH 95.6 billion
• Budget Savings: UAH 16.3 billion
• Average Supplier SLA (Service Level Agreement): 78%
• Digitalization: The introduction of the DOT-Chain IT system accelerated the supply cycle by four times and eliminated over 30,000 paper documents weekly.
• For the first time in AFU supply history, the confirmed requirement for the following year (2025) began to be contracted in the preceding year, starting in November 2024.

The DOT’s performance across key areas:

Food supply:

• Contracted: UAH 23.6 billion
• Delivered: 95.1%
• Supplied 264 million liters of water, equivalent to approximately 85 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Gear, clothing, and personal protective equipment:

• Contracted: UAH 22.8 billion
• Delivered: 84%
• The 128,860 body armor units delivered are sufficient to fully equip the armies of Hungary, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Sweden combined.

Fuel and lubricants:

• Contracted: UAH 28.2 billion
• Delivered: 90.8%
• Supplied 11,000 railcars of fuel and lubricants, equivalent in length to the distance from Bratislava to Budapest if formed into a single column.

Transparency and anti-corruption policy

One of the key priorities of the DOT is to develop a system that eliminates any possibility of corruption. Anti-corruption mechanisms are integrated into all procurement processes of the Ministry of Defence’s procurement agency, including internal team interactions and engagements with external stakeholders. The agency operates under the approved Anti-Corruption Program for the period of 2023-2025. In 2024, a three-tier control system was implemented.

This enables a clear distinction between the three main functions: 

• Management
• Risk and control
• Internal audit

More than 1,600 business partners were also screened. To adopt international management standards, the State Operator for Non-Lethal Acquisition collaborates with leading NATO procurement agencies.

Plans for 2025

The DOT will continue to digitalize processes, implement new supplier evaluation methods, and enhance transparency through independent oversight by the Supervisory Board.

The DOT's efforts show that even in wartime, an efficient and transparent system of non-lethal supply can be established to serve the interests of every service member.