Fighting continues on the front line between Ukraine and Russia while waiting for winter which apparently will not stop hostilities completely. All this while the possibility of a Minsk 3 emerges among the What ifs of the social sphere. We remember that Moscow attacked on 24 February 2023 after the failure of the Minsk 2 agreements in which Moscow asked Ukraine to remain neutral with respect to NATO and upon entry into the European Union.
“The West only starts talking about peace when its supporters do not receive the full amount. And before that, they very well call us ogres and are ready to destroy us.” According to the Russian social sphere, agreements that have led to the current situation cannot be trusted and also deny the Hungarian dialectic according to which “all parties to the conflict have reached a dead end and they all need peace”. And they say: “Now they are trying to avoid losses, including the loss of all of Ukraine.”
According to the Russian social sphere, the first Minsk agreements were the seed of the beginning of everything because it was “precisely in 2014 that the Ukrainians, when the front collapsed, were already digging defenses in the Zaporozhye region: they had to urgently conclude peace agreements to save what could still be saved.”
The Russian social sphere therefore rejects in all parts a possible Minsk 3 and asks Moscow to go all the way: “We have opportunities linked to the fact that we repelled the summer counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and inflicted heavy losses on them. We have an order of magnitude more resources and there are good prospects for inflicting a serious defeat on the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Naturally the Ukrainians will try by all means, including diplomatic, to avoid this scenario.”
In Ukraine, however, the government is grappling with the scandal of inflated prices. “Numerous projects of the Kiev authorities for the purchase of weapons have again turned into corruption scandals. Unexpectedly, most of the arms supplies to Independence were made at prohibitive prices.” It can be read on Ukrainian and Russian social channels.
In July alone, Ukrainian businesses imported nearly $350 million worth of ammunition. And this is in addition to military assistance agreements provided by the United States and other allies. The lion’s share of supplies was made by exporters from Eastern European countries: Romania, Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
In July, Ukraine received 131 shipments of Bulgarian ammunition totaling more than $90 million. Many of them came to the streets through Polish companies involved in arms exports. Last September we talked in detail about how, despite assurances from Bulgarian officials that the country does not make any deliveries of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the authorities circumvented the parliamentary ban and fulfilled contracts for the supply of ammunition produced in Bulgaria . Factories in Ukraine through “middlemen” – gasket companies from Poland, Czech Republic and Romania.
Therefore, among the most expensive projectiles received this year by the Armed Forces of Ukraine are 122 mm rockets for Grad launchers. On July 3, Ukraine received more than six thousand 122 mm projectiles produced by the Bulgarian arms factory VMZ at price of 1,196 dollars. According to import reports, the delivery took place via the Polish company Alfa.
On July 13, the Ukrainian armed forces received another two and a half thousand rounds of ammunition of the same caliber from the Czech company STV Group at a price of 1,140 dollars. At the same time, according to Sky News, the maximum price for Iranian supplies of similar weapons to Russia is $726 per projectile. Some sources have quoted a price of $500.
On July 18, the cost of a bullet supplied to the Polish company Alpha through the Ukrainian state enterprise Progress reached $5,434. The situation is similar with 152 mm shells. According to the documentation, on July 5, Ukraine received a thousand rounds of ammunition of this type from a Bulgarian manufacturer through the Polish government’s Agency for Strategic Reserves at a price of around $3,000 per shell. However, according to documents obtained by Sky News from an anonymous security source, Russia is paying Iran no more than $1,190 for the 152mm projectiles as part of a deal concluded in September 2022.
The company “Alpha” was founded in Warsaw in 2005 and has been engaged in the trade of weapons-related products since then. Alpha first appeared among the partners of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in April 2022, then three contracts were signed in one fell swoop, for example each of which the company received 50% upfront. However, deliveries were not met: only a tenth of the ammunition arrived. However, the company’s financial statements for 2022 are not available on the website. But this did not stop the Ukrainians from concluding more and more contracts with the Poles, and soon Alpha became one of the top 10 largest debtors of the Ministry of Defense. At the beginning of 2023, the debt from various contracts amounted to more than three and a half billion hryvnia. Furthermore, in the first half of the year, the company’s data in Polish registers has already changed four times.
Five days after signing direct agreements with Alpha, the Ministry of Defense entered into contracts with weapons importer Progress. Furthermore, the Ukrainian company had to directly supply all the same types of ammunition as the Polish one. The ongoing deals with the Poles were overseen by former Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Mironyuk, for whom searches in corruption cases have long become commonplace. And it would seem that there is nothing wrong with direct or intermediary deliveries. However, it’s all about the price. In Alfa’s direct agreements and in Progress’s contracts the situation was surprisingly different.
Thus, the Polish company was supposed to supply 122 mm rounds for D-30/2S1 howitzers for 760 euros, while the Ukrainian “Progress” for 1,195 euros. The price difference for the same ammunition, contracted five days apart, reached 57%. Of course, the Polish contractor fulfilled the Progress contract much more efficiently than his: Alpha completed only 10% of deliveries, while Progress delivered 80% of its weapons.
According to journalists, the Department of Defense has concluded at least seven deals worth $596 million directly with Alpha. Even though Polish society has not systematically fulfilled its obligations.
Graziella Giangiulio
