The global arms and ammunition market is a large monopoly where the main players know each other, so it is difficult for Ukraine to purchase weapons directly, and the only way out is to use intermediary countries. This was stated by Serhiy Kuzan, Chairman of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, in an exclusive commentary to UNN.
Experts in the comments to UNN note that there is fierce competition on its arms market, and Russia still helps to influence countries that have Soviet-style ammunition to prevent Ukraine from receiving shells. At the same time, the Balkan countries still have warehouses with Soviet weapons that can be bought cheaper than NATO weapons. However, some of these countries refuse to supply these weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, although they keep them as their national stockpile to maintain their defense capabilities.
"The market of weapons and ammunition is a rather specific market, it requires permits, it is not a case of just anyone who wants to come in and buy what they want, there are participants, there are contracts and there are certain procedures... This is a rather serious monopoly where the main players know each other and it is impossible to do it (buy weapons or ammunition - ed.) without permits and approvals," noted Serhiy Kuzan.
He explained that Ukraine cannot receive any weapon without the permission of the country of origin. According to him, this is due to the control over arms trafficking. In this way, the manufacturing country receives guarantees that its weapons or ammunition will not end up in a hostile country and will not be used against its own or allies.
In addition, Russia is trying to create problems in every possible way to prevent Ukraine from purchasing advanced weapons and ammunition, especially Soviet-style ones. thus, it still has influence on the Balkan countries.
"Wherever there is Russian influence, it is incredibly difficult to buy ammunition... They (Russians - ed.) buy weapons from third countries, interrupt our contracts, and they also threaten governments," Kuzan explained.
He added that the only way to solve this problem is to use a third country as an intermediary, because the problem is not going away and Ukraine desperately needs weapons and ammunition of both NATO and Soviet models.
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Before the full-scale invasion, the absolute state armament of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was, to varying degrees , a Soviet legacy . Therefore, the weapons themselves, their spare parts and ammunition are mostly produced in the territory of former Warsaw Pact states. Some of the states where ammunition is abundant for Ukraine are hostile - Russia and Belarus. From other post-socialist countries that joined the EU (Poland, the Czech Republic, etc.), Ukraine received all the help it could get.
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 with the increase in support for Ukraine, they refuse to directly supply us with weapons and ammunition. Therefore, Ukraine is forced to purchase ammunition from these countries through a number of intermediaries.