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Ukrainian Military Buy Russian Engines Bypassing the Ban

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military bypassed Kiev’s ban on trade with Russia and bought Russian engines for its APCs via foreign intermediaries. It was Ukrainian media which wrote about this. According to them, at least 20 units have already been bought under this scheme. Alexei Konopko will tell us how it happens and who benefits from it. No one would probably have noticed the investigation of the journalist from Chisinau on Moldova’s participation in the gray schemes of Ukraine. After all, budget machinations are not the biggest problem for the country of upheavals. However, it turned out that this time the country hit a nerve. Schemers decided to benefit from trading with the "aggressor-country". A Moldovan company purchased 20 engines in the KAMAZ factory. Several days later, these engines were resold to another company, Avtoprezent. This Moldovan company resold them to the third one in Germany. And the German company brought these engines into Ukraine. Imported engines are a bitter blow for Ukrainian patriotism. They are customized for a specific machine, APC-80, in its original Soviet modification. The Russian army is equipped with the new units from the Yaroslavl Motor Plant. It wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the statements of Ukroboronprom, according to which they haven’t bought a single military product in Russia since 2014. But if one really wants, they can. According to various estimates, Ukrainian defense industry needs approximately 5-6% of GDP to maintain its status quo. It doesn’t have the money. In fact, Ukraine is now using the remaining funds, the reserve, which is still left after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Perhaps, the chain of intermediaries didn’t end in Moldova because a year ago, the same Ukroboronprom presented new APCs, adapted to NATO engines. That's why they now import engines from Germany. It is a non-public details that they are Russian. Engines for the BTR-80 are not on the free market, and in general, they are not on the market at all. This engines are for military purposes, they are not produced for some unknown companies. Most likely, not only did Ukraine spent more money than they really cost, they are also civil, and are impossible to use in military vehicles like APC-80. But most likely, it's still about money. According to the investigation data, the Moldovan company was ready to purchase the units made at the Kama plant for 9850 euro and resell it to anyone interested with a margin of only 1%. But the engines arrived in Kiev with a tag showing the price which has grown by half. The engines that were brought from Moldova and that are worth 10 thousand euros all fit in two trucks. The transportation for each truck from Chisinau to Kiev costs, let's say, a thousand euros. That is, the transportation of all twenty engines from Moldova to Ukraine could cost two thousand euros tops, and in no way one hundred thousand euros. The last but one link in the chain, the Moldovan company Aprotehpro, is controlled by people closely connected to the former deputy of the Rada Oleksandr Dubovoy. He, in turn, is a long time friend of Sergei Pashinsky, the one who smuggled sniper rifles from the Maidan in the trunk of his car. His specialty hasn't changed today. This business is one of the few that still bring big bonuses, and also in foreign currency. It is natural that after the coup d’etat, this piece of the pie was given to the people who were involved the most in these processes. Ukroboronprom, a money laundry under President Yanukovych, as it was called by the activists of the Maidan, is now, as they say, has changed its activities to honest ones. Roman Romanov, a protege of a business partner of Poroshenko Oleg Gladkovsky, is in charge of this shift. The first thing the new director did was hire his Kherson landsmen as deputies. For example, Sergei Pinkas. Prior to this, the first deputy head of the defense giant was in charge of the housing sector in the city Tsyurupinsk. There is a study of the American company REN. A summary of it was that in 2017, military, technical, and financial support from the western partners is likely to decline sharply because they do not see anything besides corruption in Ukraine. Generally speaking, the current story is hardly a sensation. Late last year, the state company Ukrinmash purchased engines for the Soviet APC-70 in the UK from Rion Assets Company for 120 thousand dollars. This is despite the fact that funding for new equipment is so low that the foremost achievements of military engineering, tanks Oplot and armored vehicles Dozor, never reached the Ukrainian army. The staff of the Lvov Armor Plant were placed on unpaid leave.

Ukrainian Military Buy Russian Engines Bypassing the Ban
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