Almost from the first days of Russian aggression, Ukraine urges allies in the West to provide it with more weapons. Initially, it was mainly weapons to protect, now, when the Ukrainian army needs long -range artillery to withstand Russian troops, howitzers and rocket systems (MLRS) are slowly and, moreover, in insufficient quantities and therefore Ukraine is trying to buy weapons on the world market. It is mainly about the technique of Soviet, partially Russian production. This was reported in its article by the Russian edition of The Moscow Times.
However, here, Ukrainian buyers of weapons are again encountered by Russia, which also needs to be replenished with exhausting weapons reserves. So, in May, the Czech and Polish brokers practically agreed on the purchase of armored vehicles and artillery shells from the Bulgarian supplier, when a group of Armenian buyers offered one and a half times more money and won a contract, said the Wall Street Journal, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, who was familiar with the course Negotiations.
According to the Ukrainian deputy, “we are absolutely sure that this weapon will not go to Armenia, but will probably be sent to Russia. They understand what we are looking for and where”.
Brokers working in the world weapon market argue that Russia is not only trying to interrupt prices, but also threatens the countries in the armed forces of which are Russian systems, to stop providing them with components and services for service.
In May, at a briefing in Washington, the Minister of Defense of Great Britain Ben Wallace said that Great Britain and the United States studied the situation in 23 countries with small arms and military equipment of Russian production, with the aim of purchasing and transferring them to Ukraine. “Half of our help was the following: where can we find this? And sometimes we came across the Russians who in the same countries were looking for some of the same types of weapons to provide [our army] because they quickly end,” said Walles.
Sometimes Ukrainian buyers and representatives of the governments of the United States and the UK helping them were late with the conclusion of contracts, or potential transactions were broken, WSJ writes. The Ukrainian deputy – the second interlocutor of the newspaper explains this by the fact that Russian intelligence services in these cases acted effectively, and the intelligence services of Ukraine and its allies – no.
According to Western intelligence, the Russian army is greatly exhausted. The other day, Bloomberg, citing European officials, said that there are searches for fighters and weapons throughout the country, up to the re -conservation of old tanks from warehouses in the Far East. According to Oryx, Russia lost destroyed, damaged, abandoned and captured 4328 units of military equipment, including 774 tanks, 432 armored personnel carriers, 853 infantry combat vehicles, 82 MLRSs, 47 helicopters, etc.). Ukraine, according to the same data, lost 1159 units of equipment, including 194 tanks, 88 armored personnel carriers, 135 BMPs, 19 MLRS, 11 helicopters, etc.