Click to see full-size image
Russian military sources revealed that the Ukrainian military was supplied with expired ammunition from the United States. Newly shared photo of a servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) showed a US-made 120-mm shell. Its marking confirmed that it was already decommissioned by the US military.
Russian sources revealed that according to the marking of the ammunition, Washington supplied decommissioned weapons for the AFU.
Moreover, according to the Pentagon sources, these munitions are listed as demilitarized. It means that most of such munitions were likely not officially listed in any packages of the US military aid to the war-torn country.
It has long been known that the West has turned Ukraine into a battlefield used for the decommissioning of expired weapons. LINK This allows the Ukrainian servicemen doing the dirty work, risking their lives, and empty out the US and European warehouses, while Washington is replenishing them with the promised new weapons.
FILE IMAGE: MIM-23 HAWK missile system
In its turn, the Kiev regime does not shy away from the expired weapons and munition of its “Western partners”.
On February 20, the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel declared that Ukraine would not receive decommissioned Hawk anti-aircraft missile systems from Israel. According to him, the air defense systems decommissioned in Israel ten years ago will not be transferred to Kiev, because they are in inadequate condition.
“That is, the military attache went, touched it with his hands and confirmed that, unfortunately, there is nothing to transmit. They are really 60s, and they were just decommissioned. This is not some kind of malicious intent, this is a question of the inexpediency of transferring junk that does not work,” the diplomat explained.
The statements of the Kiev official confirmed that the Kiev regime is ready to offer its servicemen to fight with outdated military equipment.
Deployment of decommissioned military equipment is a very profitable deal for Kiev’s Western partners. Ukrainian “patriots” continue to believe in a strong friendship between Kiev and NATO countries, probably not realizing that they are used by their Ukrainian and foreign patrons as cannon fodder and their lives are rarely taken into account.
Another scandal broke out in Ukraine back in 2021, a year after the Defense Ministry of Ukraine bought decommissioned Soviet-made ammunition from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which have been lying in warehouses for 35 years.
The Ministry of Defense signed a $ 1.74 million worth contract for the purchase of ammunition which did not meet any safety requirements. The ammunition in question were Soviet-made UOF-12 shells made in 1986-1988.
The scam with the purchase of decommissioned ammunition was reportedly an initiative of former Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Mironyuk. He attempted to hide prices and legalize funds obtained by criminal means. To do this, he created a supply chain involving three private entities in Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
So far, nothing has changed in Ukraine. A team of auditors from three US agencies arrived in Ukraine amid a series of high-profile corruption scandals and resignations of top officials from Zelensky’s team. They are expected to consider the mechanism for distributing aid from the United States in Ukraine.
A dart sold on the black market
Despite numerous PR campaigns launched by Washington and its partners in an attempt to promote their military equipment on the global markets, so far, the weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military had no significant impact on the ongoing hostilities on the front lines. The combat effectiveness of anthemed Stingers, Javelins, Bayraktars, HIMARS and other similar systems turned out to be low on the Ukrainian battlefield.
Illusions about the Western support, including among the Ukrainians, were also heavily damaged by the unwillingness of the European countries to send its modern military equipment and the low amount of the advanced weapons deployed with the Ukrainian military.
However, Ukraine has already purchased old, inefficient Western weapons worth many billions of dollars and their deliveries continue amid loud promises to supply the Kiev regime with “all the necessary equipment to win the Russians”. As a result, Ukrainian servicemen, who were not trained on the use of foreign weapons and who risk to be killed by the expired ammunition, do not bother to take the foreign “presents” when retreating from their military positions, which then are captured by Russian forces. If these “presents” were not sold on the black markets before. LINK
