In the middle of a war that has pushed Ukraine to the limits of survival, where rockets rain on cities and weapons factories work around the clock, one might expect the nation’s top defense innovators to be shielded from harm. Instead, Leonid Shyman — one of the country’s most accomplished defense engineers — sits behind bars, his decades of service eclipsed by a cloud of accusations that many see as politically driven.
This is not merely the downfall of a man. It is a direct strike at the core of Ukraine’s defense capability.
Architect of Ukraine’s Ammunition Independence
For over two decades, Shyman led the Pavlohrad Chemical Plant (PCP), transforming it from a struggling post-Soviet facility into the backbone of Ukraine’s munitions production. By 2024, under his leadership, Ukraine’s domestic factories produced millions of artillery shells and mortar rounds annually, with PCP accounting for more than half the national supply.
Shyman’s ambitions extended beyond quantity. He sought to make Ukraine fully self-reliant in the production of propellant — the lifeblood of modern munitions — by creating a network of specialized chemical plants. His blueprint included facilities for nitric acid, sulfuric acid, nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and nitroguanidine, all essential to breaking dependence on foreign suppliers.
In early 2024, PCP also entered a landmark joint venture with Germany’s Rheinmetall to manufacture hundreds of thousands of 155 mm shells annually, complete with propelling charges. The deal would have elevated Ukraine into the small group of nations capable of producing heavy artillery ammunition entirely in-house.
But Pavlohrad’s role reached far beyond shells. It was the only facility in Ukraine able to process certain rocket propellants and explosives — making it indispensable for every major missile program. PCP’s fingerprints were on the Vilkha-M guided rocket system, the Hrim-2 short-range ballistic missile, and the Neptune anti-ship cruise missile — the latter famous for sinking Russia’s Black Sea flagship Moskva in 2022.
Shyman, an engineer by training who began his career working on the SS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile, rose to become Ukraine’s chief designer for solid-propellant rocket motors and, later, the nation’s general designer for ammunition and explosives. By 2025, PCP was the most profitable state-owned enterprise in Ukraine, generating $1.5 billion in revenue despite the ongoing war.
It was, by all accounts, a thriving national asset. And then came the fall.
A Cascade of Allegations
The trouble began in late 2021, when investigators suddenly revived a dormant case accusing Shyman of selling industrial explosives through intermediaries a decade earlier. While the plant’s own records indicated the practice had boosted profits, the accusations resurfaced just as PCP’s strategic and financial importance peaked.
In 2023, a new case emerged over a failed 2016 contract with a U.S. company for specialized missile components. The American firm never delivered, and PCP successfully sued to recover the funds. Yet prosecutors charged Shyman for signing the deal, freezing his assets as if he were a criminal rather than a victim of fraud.
The most dramatic blow came in April 2025. Shyman and his deputy were arrested during a Security Service raid, accused of supplying 120,000 defective mortar rounds to the front lines. While the number sounded catastrophic, official records showed only 417 malfunctions out of millions of rounds produced — with investigators later blaming improper storage conditions rather than manufacturing flaws. Nonetheless, Shyman was jailed without bail.
The Contradictions
In a twist that defied logic, weeks before Shyman’s arrest the government awarded PCP eight new contracts worth 59.6 billion hryvnias — the largest ammunition order in its history. Even critics of the plant admitted it remained irreplaceable.
For workers in Pavlohrad, the arrest felt like an attack not just on a leader but on the lifeline of Ukraine’s defense. Employees, military officers, and suppliers rallied to Shyman’s defense, sending open letters to the president and pointing out that the supposed “bad batch” was statistically negligible.
Politics, Power, and the Security Services
Shyman’s prosecution unfolded against a backdrop of political turbulence. In mid-2025, Ukraine’s parliament moved to strip its anti-corruption agencies of independence, sparking warnings from Western allies and triggering a power struggle between the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The SBU launched sweeping raids, including arrests of NABU officials, in what critics saw as a purge disguised as counterintelligence.
Many saw Shyman’s detention — staged with cameras in the midst of this crackdown — as part of a broader battle for control of lucrative state enterprises under wartime cover. The optics were clear: a celebrated defense chief publicly humiliated, his future uncertain, his projects stalled.
The Economic Prize
Beyond politics, the financial stakes are immense. PCP produces ammunition far cheaper than imports, in some cases up to 200% less. In 2025, the plant’s sales soared to $1.6 billion, with profits of $145 million. For rivals and intermediaries, sidelining PCP opens the door to import deals at inflated prices — with ample room for commissions. The suspension of Shyman’s propellant-independence program and the Rheinmetall joint venture was, to insiders, a greater blow to Ukraine’s defenses than any defective shells.
A Symbolic Trial
Today, Leonid Shyman remains in detention, his fate undecided. In the court of public opinion, he has been branded guilty before any verdict. Yet questions linger: Why was the alleged shell issue pursued months after it was resolved? Why were no military inspectors held accountable? And who benefits if Ukraine’s most critical munitions producer is crippled?
In wartime, the answer to such questions is often obscured. But history will remember whether Ukraine chose to defend its builders or destroy them. As one PCP worker put it:
“We know what Leonid Shyman has done for this country. The question is — do we punish those who build our strength, or those who tear it down?”