Skip to main content

Ukraine Did Not Sell Tanks To Uganda

29 December, 00:00
For the past three years Ukraine has not supplied any armaments to Uganda. Kyiv officialdom in this line of business finally mustered the courage to refute a series of publications carried by Uganda's government newspaper, New Vision, several weeks ago.

Ukraine was alleged to have supplied a shipment of T-55 tanks worth $28 billion, yet only 8 of almost 60 armored vehicles delivered turned out operational. This caused a scandal in Uganda, with the opposition accusing the government of spending so much on defective goods.

"We could not afford to have Ukraine's image smeared as a reliable and fair business partner in the sphere of military-technical cooperation, let alone supply defective goods," Valery Hubenko, head of the State Export Control Service, told The Day and added that no business entity in Ukraine has had anything to do with recent arms supplies to Uganda. The latest such shipment dates back to 1995 when the situation was normal in that country. The current status of the region is very complicated, so Ukraine is careful to adhere to the Wassenaar accords banning arms deliveries to hotbeds across the world.

It should be remembered, however, that the Wassenaar accords are very like a gentleman's agreement, envisaging no specific sanctions against transgressors, which makes the instrument a very good asset in "able" hands, in this case at clumsy Ukraine's expense - at least this is what Mr. Hubenko's statement amounted to. He admitted that in September 1998 an export company in a neighboring country (not Russia) received permission from the Ukrainian State Export Control Service to transmit a shipment of T-50 tanks and spare parts to Uganda. Accordingly, Ukraine allowed its transit via its territory and the reloading was done at the Oktiabrsk Port in Mykolayiv. Mr. Hubenko further stated that "Ukraine cannot be held liable for any possible deviations from the stated transit route beyond Ukraine's borders." This statement could be interpreted as a hint at the shipment ending in the hands of an entity other than that stated in the documents presented to Kyiv. So who was the shipper? The State Export Control Service had no comment.

Ukrspetseksport, Ukraine's official arms dealer, says that two rather sizable contracts on arms supplies to the African continent are being hammered out. Kyiv is actually making the first tentative steps in this region which looks quite promising for the Ukrainian defense establishment, considering that Africa is accustomed to arms supplies from Eastern Europe, particularly from ex-Soviet contractors. However, recent allegations about defective Ukrainian shipments to Uganda are slowing the contractual process which is, of course, very detrimental to the Ukrainian side and very much to the advantage of Kyiv's rivals on the weapons market. Be it as it may, the only logical conclusion from all this is that a country wishing to profit from arms supplies must not only manufacture quality, competitive goods, but also learn how to win information campaigns.
 

Delimiter 468x90 ad place

Новини партнерів:

slide 7 to 10 of 8

Subscribe to the latest news:

Газета "День"
read