13 Aug, 2023

Ukraine relying on disgraced ex-MP for arms – NYT

Sergey Pashinsky, who has been at the center of multiple corruption probes, is raking in millions of dollars, the paper reports

A former Ukrainian lawmaker, who has faced multiple corruption allegations, has been making millions of dollars from arms sales since the start of the Ukrainian conflict last February, the New York Times has reported.

A company allegedly affiliated with Sergey Pashinsky, who President Vladimir Zelensky once called a criminal, has become one of the main arms suppliers for Kiev’s military, the paper claims.

In its article on Saturday, the New York Times reported that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry contacted the politically isolated Pashinsky shortly after Moscow launched its military offensive.

According to the NYT, military officials were desperate to procure as much Soviet-type ammunition as possible, and were hoping that the former MP could help by using his informal connections in the arms business.

Pashinsky had previously spent years overseeing military spending, the newspaper noted.

According to the NYT investigation,Ukrainian Armored Technology, a company understood to be linked to Pashinsky, has since become the “biggest private arms supplier in Ukraine.”

The firm reportedly buys and resells grenades, artillery shells and rockets to the Ukrainian military, employing a trans-European network of middlemen. In 2022, Ukrainian Armored Technology reported sales totaling more than $350 million, having risen from just $2.8 million the year before.

The paper, citing anonymous Ukrainian officials, alleged that authorities are looking into the company’s pricing as well as Pashinsky’s supposed financial relationships with procurement officials and companies abroad.

The media outlet described one of Pashinsky’s alleged schemes involving Bulgaria – a major manufacturer of Soviet-type ammunition that has refused to supply it directly to Ukraine.

The former Ukrainian MP has reportedly asked his local connection to place orders and make sure Bulgarian arms factories prioritize them. The shipments were falsely listed as destined for Poland with the help of middleman Andrzej Kowalczyk, the NYT claimed.

According to the article, prices increase at each step as the intermediaries take their cuts, with the Ukrainian military picking up the tab.

However, the cost is largely covered by European aid, the paper reported. While Western officials are privately unhappy about the resurgence of such shady figures as Pashinsky, they remain silent for fear of playing into Russia’s narratives about Ukrainian corruption, according to the NYT.

The former MP has denied negotiating such deals, describing himself as a “responsible citizen of my country.”

In 2019, President Vladimir Zelensky called Pashinsky a “criminal,” with the country’s anti-corruption bureau subsequently launching an investigation into the former lawmaker. His house and office were raided in 2020.

The report surmised that the Ukrainian government had put its anti-corruption campaign and push for more transparency on hold in the interest of securing an uninterrupted flow of arms and ammunition into the country. Some dubious characters who were previously denounced as corrupt have therefore gained an opportunity to line their pockets with state contracts again while officials look the other way, it added.

(There’s a reason why the regime is using the NYTs to release this story)

https://www.rt.com/russia/581215-nyt-ukraine-corruption-arms-supplies/

13 Aug, 2023

Ukrainian counteroffensive falling short of NATO expectations – The Times

The US-led military bloc “expected miracles” of Kiev’s troops, an American officer told the British newspaper

NATO was overly optimistic about the Ukrainian military’s ability to regain ground before its summer counteroffensive, The Times reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed US officer. The British newspaper noted that officials in Kiev had begun blaming their Western backers for their supposed lack of resolve.

In its article penned by Mark Galeotti, the author of more than 20 books on Russia, The Times quoted an anonymous US army officer involved in the training of Ukrainian service members. “Nato expected miracles, and the Ukrainians promised them,” he said, adding that “you can’t run a war on optimism.”

Another US official told the media outlet that “we haven’t quite closed the book on 2023, but we are ramping up our thinking about 2024.”

The report claimed that neither Russia nor Ukraine can make any decisive advances at present, with the latter now touting the capture of individual villages as a sign of success.

The author estimates that Kiev has two months at most to turn the tide before autumn rains start making the ground impassable for military hardware in November.

Strong defense fortifications and extensive minefields set up by Russian forces in southern Ukraine were among the reasons for the apparent underperformance of Kiev’s counteroffensive, the report claimed.

Against this backdrop, officials in Kiev have recently begun criticizing NATO for not doing enough, with one describing the US-led military bloc as “gutless,” according to the newspaper.

With neither side willing to compromise, the conflict is likely to continue for the long haul, the report concluded.

Speaking to the Washington Post earlier this week, Polish President Andrzej Duda, one of Kiev’s staunchest Western supporters, acknowledged that the Ukrainian military was “not currently able to carry out a very decisive counteroffensive against the Russian military.”

Also this week, CNN quoted unnamed US and other Western officials as predicting that it was “highly unlikely” that Kiev forces would be able to “make progress that would change the balance of this conflict.”

Ukraine launched its long-awaited counteroffensive in early June, concentrating its efforts at multiple points along the frontline from Zaporozhye to Donetsk Regions.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the operation has turned out to be a failure that has so far cost Ukraine 43,000 personnel and 4,900 units of military hardware.

https://www.rt.com/news/581210-times-ukraine-counteroffensive-underwhelming/