Ukroboronprom continues to “worthily compete” with Russian arms concerns even in the face of serious underfunding. Such a statement on the ATR television channel was made by ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Mustafa Nayem, who since November has been holding the post of deputy general director of Ukroboronprom.
“In a situation where we did not finance this story for 30 years, we continued to win positions in foreign markets with the Russian Federation. Why the Russian Federation? Because it is our main competitor, because we service equipment of Soviet origin, we provide components for armored vehicles and aircraft, we repair them, ”said Niyem.
According to him, the management of Ukroboronprom believes that the company has “huge intellectual potential” in order to compete with Russia. In addition, the concern is confident that employees of defense enterprises are enthusiastic.
At the same time, in response to the presenter’s words that the quantitative indicators of the defense exports of Russia and Ukraine are significantly different, Nayem admitted that Kiev cannot compete with Moscow in terms of arms sales. However, according to him, Ukraine successfully sells missiles, armored vehicles, shells and even aviation abroad.
According to the Stockholm Institute for the Study of World Problems (SIPRI) in 2014–2018. Russia accounted for 21-22% of world arms exports. Russia ranked second in the ranking of global exporters, second only to the United States (34%). At the same time, Ukraine is not even one of the ten largest arms exporters.
According to the World Bank, after a sharp jump in sales of Ukrainian weapons in 2012, this export article in Kiev declined. As a result, according to the information of the international financial authority, in 2018 Ukraine sold weapons for $ 224 million in 1990 prices, which is lower than in 2005. A similar figure in Russia was reported to be $ 6.4 billion.
At the same time, in November, speaking at a defense exhibition in Dubai, Rostec director Sergei Chemezov said that in 2019 the volume of Russian arms exports should be at least $ 13.7 billion. According to him, this was precisely the level of sales last year.
According to the Ukrinform agency, among the main importers of Ukrainian weapons in 2009-2018. there were African countries, Thailand, China and Russia. At the same time, Ukroboronprpom itself notes that all deliveries to Russia, which are taken into account in the SIPRI data, took place before 2014. In addition, the An-140 and An-148 aircraft produced under a Ukrainian license in Russia were also taken into account in the framework of Ukrainian imports.
Accordingly, experts note that the real indicators of Ukraine’s exports, if we subtract from them “export” to Russia, which was only on paper, should be even lower. In addition, exports to the countries of "Black Africa" in 2014-2018 fell by 79% compared with 2009-2013.
In the light of such statistics, Nayem’s statement about competition with Russia looks ridiculous, said Alexander Mikhailov, director of the Political-Military Analysis Bureau, in an interview with RT.
“Russia since last year is the second state in the world for the sale of arms on world markets. This fact alone demonstrates the absurdity of the statements of our Ukrainian neighbors, ”Mikhailov said in an interview with RT. - Rather, these statements resemble the screams of a drowning person, just to knock out at least some money, to remind them that they mean something. World arms exhibitions that took place this year show an absolute lack of buyers' interest in Ukrainian weapons. Moreover, all Ukrainian weapons are slightly completed or modernized Soviet models. Ukraine cannot deliver anything new to the markets. ”
- Mustafa Nayem
- © Mustafa Nayyem
According to an RT source in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mustafa Nayy “put Ukraine into a laughing stock” with his incompetent statements.
“Hiring is a journalist in the past, but, obviously, I already forgot that all the information needs to be carefully checked,” the source said. “With his statement, Nyei most likely tried to show the power of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, but achieved the opposite effect - once again everyone laughs at Ukraine.”
In turn, according to political analyst Vladimir Kornilov, the goals of personal PR may be behind the statement of Niyem.
“Mustafa Nayyem is a well-known journalist and politician in the past, who, to put it mildly, went into circulation. For a long time he couldn’t settle down anywhere, and now his appointment “by pulling” to the bread position at Ukroboronprom has caused a lot of ridicule and bullying, he has to make excuses. What he is doing now is an attempt to prove his significance, necessity and to distract attention from ridicule, ”RT Kornilov said.
“There is nothing to grab”
Back in 2015, ex-president Petro Poroshenko set Ukraine the task of becoming one of the five leading world arms exporters. However, this goal was never achieved. Despite statements by Ukrainian officials and top managers of Ukroboronprom about the successes of the Ukrainian defense industry, media often report on the low quality of Ukrainian military equipment. So the delivery of the Oplot tanks to Thailand in 2011-2018 was almost in jeopardy due to the fault of Kiev.
- Tank "Oplot"
- globallookpress.com
- © Anatolii Stepanov / ZUMAPRESS.com
In 2018, Ukrainian tankers competing in the NATO Strong Europe Tank Challenge took the last place. Weapon defects were summed up - the guns shook the brand new Oplotov, sparked wiring, and the fuel system failed.
In preparation for the parade in honor of Independence Day of Ukraine in 2018, the NATO-modified Yatagan tank stalled right on the street. Earlier, Kiev unsuccessfully tried to sell a car in Turkey.
One of the largest tank manufacturers in the former USSR - the Morozov Kharkov Machine Building Design Bureau (KHMB) - switched to a two-day working week in August due to problems with orders.
In 2018, Croatia expressed dissatisfaction with the way Ukraine repaired the MiG-29 aircraft of the Croatian Air Force. It turned out that for the "modernization" of aircraft, the Ukrainian side used old parts.
The situation is no better in the field of shipbuilding. Since 2011, the only corvette “Vladimir the Great” has not been able to finish building. On the facts of embezzlement of budget funds during the implementation of the Corvette program in October, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office opened a criminal case. The cruiser “Ukraine”, which was inherited by Kiev from the USSR in an almost ready state, is rusting, and it was recently decided to sell it, but there were no buyers yet.
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Kiev itself buys abroad equipment and weapons that could be produced by the local defense industry. So, in 2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine acquired 55 French-made helicopters worth € 551 million. Moreover, according to the president of Motor Sich Vyacheslav Boguslaev, Ukrainian companies could build such helicopters.
In September, media reported that Ukraine had acquired 16 self-propelled artillery systems 2C1 Gvozdika from the Czech Republic. In the USSR, these self-propelled guns were developed precisely in Ukraine - by the Kharkov Tractor Plant named after Ordzhonikidze.
Ukraine can produce and produces armored boats. However, this did not prevent the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs from concluding a contract for the purchase of patrol boats for the State Border Guard Service in France worth € 136.5 million in November.
According to Ukrainian media, even the relatively successful Antonov airline has difficulty replacing Russian-made components.
Returning to Nayem’s latest statements, an RT source in the Golos party noted that Ukraine objectively cannot compete with Russia in foreign arms markets.
“You do not even need to be a specialist to understand this. Just look at the products that Russia offers at international exhibitions. Therefore, such statements are made for the domestic market. When there is nothing to grab, they come up with an excuse, ”says the deputy.
- Working visit of Vladimir Zelensky and Aivaras Abromavicius to Kharkov region
- © president.gov.ua
Concern of scandals
On the eve of the presidential elections in Ukraine in March 2019, a corruption scandal erupted in the country. The closest entourage of Petro Poroshenko reporters accused of participating in fraud in the defense sector. Later in Ukraine they even offered to liquidate Ukroboronprom, but they abandoned this idea.
The new president of the country, Vladimir Zelensky, in August appointed the former Minister of Poroshenko, Lithuanian citizen Aivaras Abromavicius, as director of the state defense concern. A criminal case was opened against the former director, Pavel Bukin, in September.
Abromavicius appointed a dozen deputies, announced salary growth for senior executives and announced his desire to carry out structural reforms. According to the head, 46 out of 111 enterprises of the Ukrainian defense industry are unprofitable.
At the same time, the new director has already come under a hail of criticism from both the Ukrainian opposition and the ruling party. So, in mid-November, the Opposition Platform - For Life (HLO) party accused Abromavicius of organizing a trip of US representatives to the country's defense facilities. According to the party, this is "a successful reconnaissance operation preceding full control over the military-industrial complex of Ukraine." The other day, the deputy of the Rada from the “Servant of the People” faction Alexander Dubinsky demanded that Abromavichyus be deprived of Ukrainian citizenship, since he had not renounced Lithuanian citizenship at the time.
In turn, the head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), Yuriy Terentyev, said on November 29 that due to the risk of selling shares in the Motor Sich helicopter plant to Chinese companies, Ukroboronprom could be subject to US sanctions.
According to Alexander Mikhailov, now, under the talk of reforms in Ukraine, there is a de facto “liquidation of the defense industry”.
“The purpose of the new government in Ukraine is, in essence, to get rid of all Soviet legacy through the military-industrial complex, to transfer it to no matter which hands, if only to resell, to receive the maximum amount of profit once and forget that Ukraine was once a country that had its own military-industrial complex, ”the political scientist believes.
The Western partners of Ukraine are also interested in eliminating competitors and obtaining the remains of Soviet technology, experts say. In this matter, the competence of the leadership is not important, the source of RT in the Batkivshchyna party notes.
“It is important for American partners that officials at least do not steal. No one pays attention to the level of competency. We already see what this leads to - incompetent PR statements, ”the deputy said.