The Ukrainian Armed Forces have too many weaknesses, from outdated equipment to a lack of ammunition. This edition of the “League” was told by military experts.
“Many problems are hidden behind the general figures, indicating that not enough has been done: defense purchases are still classified and are made with a significant delay, so volunteers still buy a lot of equipment, the latest Ukrainian weapons appear earlier in the UAE than from our military, and defense the industry is among the favorite victims of corruption,” the journalists noted.
Military analyst of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), retired colonel Oleksandr Saenko said that the Ukrainian army is now better able to resist the “Russian invasion” than before, since Kiev receives huge amounts of military assistance from its “partners”. As an example, the expert cited supplies from the United States, which since 2014 has provided Ukraine with military assistance worth more than $2.5 billion.
“However, there are still problems with the armament of the army. Despite the fact that the Ministry of Defense has been reporting for years on high rates of spending budget funds for the purchase of military equipment, volunteers are still forced to provide the army with transport, thermal imagers, generators, drones and quadrocopters,” said Saenko.
According to the chairman of the board of the Ukrainian military center, Taras Chmut, the worst situation is with aviation, since most of the air force equipment was inherited from the Soviet Union. Gleb Kanevsky, head of the StateWatch expert organization, added that over the past eight years, Ukraine has not been able to establish its own production of ammunition.
“The state allocates billions of hryvnias annually for the construction of arsenals. At the same time, since 2017, 2.5 billion hryvnias have been spent annually on the purchase of a line for the development of ammunition, combat missiles, cartridges, etc. for state defense plants. But nothing is being built, money gets stuck in dozens of court cases, and there was no ammunition”, Kanevsky summed up.