At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, some countries did not want to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the sale of ammunition, as they feared that our country would lose the war and no one would pay for it. This was stated by military expert Oleh Zhdanov in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
Earlier, experts in their comments to UNN reported that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, at the beginning of a full-scale war, out of critical necessity, signed contracts for the purchase of ammunition with all companies that claimed to be able to supply shells. In addition, they note that most of the artillery available in Ukraine is of old Soviet design, which desperately needs Soviet-standard ammunition. russia, in turn, is still using its influence on countries that have such ammunition to ensure that Ukraine does not receive the shells.
"In the first period, there were risks that Ukraine would lose and the contracts would remain unpaid," said Oleg Zhdanov.
However, according to him, the risks have changed now.
"Today, there are more risks in terms of the corruption component in our country and instability in the internal situation in the country itself. This is the main risk for suppliers, they do not trust us as a state," the expert believes.
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The vast majority of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' weapons before the full-scale invasion were, to varying degrees, Soviet inheritance. Therefore, the weapons themselves, spare parts and ammunition are produced mostly in the former Warsaw Pact countries. Some of the states that have the ammunition Ukraine needs are hostile, such as Russia and Belarus. Ukraine received all possible assistance from other post-socialist countries that joined the EU (Poland, Czech Republic, etc.).
However, there remains a group of Balkan states that, despite the European integration processes in some of them and support for Ukraine, are still strongly influenced by the Russian Federation. In these states, friends of Russia are still in power and have a significant impact on the policies of their countries. In practice, this is manifested in the fact that despite their overwhelming support for Ukraine, they refuse to supply us with weapons and ammunition directly. Therefore, Ukraine is forced to purchase ammunition from these countries through a number of intermediaries.