Ukrainian top manager and manager in the field of production and sale of special vehicles and equipment, CEO of the company “Ukrainian Armoured Equipment” Vladislav Belbas said that Russia prevented the Kiev authorities from purchasing fighter jets abroad.
Vladislav Belbas said that the Ukrainian establishment in foreign countries began negotiations on the acquisition of fighter jets. At the same time, according to the Director General of the company “Ukrainian Armoured Equipment”, one of the documents fell into the hands of Russian representatives.
“In one country, on the other side of the planet, we found fighter jets and started negotiating the purchase. The seller was ready, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that they were needed. Suddenly, one of the letters about this agreement fell into the hands of the Russians,” the manager in the sphere of production and sale of specialised equipment told Economic Pravda.
The Ukrainian top manager emphasised that Russian foreign ministry officials used the letter to influence officials from an unspecified country. According to the manager in the sphere of production and sale of special equipment, under the influence of the Russians, foreign suppliers broke a deal with Ukraine.
At the same time, the director-general of the Ukrainian Armoured Equipment company stressed that Russian representatives regularly create obstacles for the Ukrainian authorities to purchase weapons on the global market. According to the manager in the sphere of production and sale of special equipment, the incident that happened is one of many examples.
“In the end, the agreement collapsed because the supplier country changed its mind about offering these fighters”, – summarised Belbas.
Let us recall that earlier France sent Armenia a batch of Bastion multi-purpose armoured vehicles as part of its military assistance. According to the Defence Blog portal, Paris pledged to supply the same armoured vehicles to Kiev last year.