Ukraine's Arms Deals: 'War is Business by Other Means’

From a long investigative report

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 marked Europe’s single-biggest weapons procurement rush since the second world war. While Ukraine’s Nato allies delivered vast amounts of military aid, the country’s own officials were also forced to find ways to supply troops fighting across a 1,000-kilometre front line. A Financial Times investigation, based on leaked Ukrainian state documents, court filings and dozens of interviews with procurement officials, weapons dealers and manufacturers, and detectives, has uncovered how hundreds of millions of dollars Kyiv paid to foreign arms intermediaries to secure vital military equipment has gone to waste over the past three years of war.

“As Ukraine continues to battle against Russia’s ammunition production superiority, the country has been left exposed to the ruthless vagaries of the international weapons market. In several cases Kyiv paid out large amounts in advance to little-known companies for materiel that to this day has never arrived. In other cases officials say that weapons sold at vastly inflated prices as global demand soared — the arms industry equivalent of surge pricing — arrived in an unusable condition.

“To date, Ukraine has paid out $770mn in advance to foreign arms brokers for weapons and ammunition that have not been delivered, according to figures from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, as well as documents seen by the FT. This represents a significant chunk of Ukraine’s annual $6bn-$8bn weapons budget spent from its own state funds since the start of the invasion.

“At the same time, some foreign arms companies say they have been the victims of infighting and corruption by Ukrainian officials and state weapons brokers, which may account for some of the missing millions.

“In one instance, in April 2022, according to Ukrainian court documents, the Ukrainian state weapons broker Ukrspetsexport purchased 120mm mortars from Sudan from sellers later found to have close ties to Russia’s FSB security service, as well as Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, which later would use Russian prisoners to fight a brutal war of attrition against Ukrainian soldiers.”

Source: Financial Times

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The Qarmatians (Al-Qaramita)

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