The Balkan countries refuse to supply Ukraine with Soviet-style ammunition directly, so the Ministry of Defense has to sign contracts for the purchase of weapons through intermediary countries. This opinion was expressed by military expert Oleh Zhdanov in an exclusive commentary to UNN .
Experts in comments to UNN note that the arms market is now fiercely competitive, and Russia still uses its influence on countries that have Soviet-style ammunition to prevent Ukraine from receiving shells. At the same time, Balkan countries still have warehouses with Soviet weapons, which can be bought cheaper than NATO weapons. However, some of these countries still refuse to supply these weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, arguing that they keep them as their national stockpile to preserve their defense capabilities.
"It is difficult to supply ammunition from there (the Balkan countries - ed.), we do not supply directly... There is indeed a huge problem, but it is solved through third countries. Or we reach an agreement with a country that becomes an intermediary," Zhdanov said.
In addition, according to him, this problem can be solved through the mediation of offshore, front companies, but in this case there is a high risk of corruption.
Zhdanov emphasized that despite the help of Western partners, most of the artillery in Ukraine is of old Soviet design, so it desperately needs Soviet-standard ammunition.
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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 states. 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.