Ukraine-Pakistan Tank Final or Prelude?

On October 27, Ukraine shipped from Mykolayiv to the Pakistani port of Karachi the last batch of a 320 tanks, which it has supplied to that country over the past three years. The military coup in Pakistan has not impacted Kyiv’s on plans to finalize this largest arms contract in Ukraine’s history. At the same time, some other nations have suspended their arms supply to Islamabad.

By selling tanks to Pakistan, Ukraine has earned $650 million, and secured a place among the first ten world arms exporters. However, the last shipment consisting of 50 T-80UD vehicles is carried out against a backdrop of a rather complicated situation caused by the military coup in Pakistan. The US together with the IMF, as well as other Western nations and even Russia have expressed their concern about the coup in Pakistan, which brought the military to power. And the week before the last, France suspended the sending of its first submarine out of three constructed under contract with Pakistan, worth more than the Ukrainian tank contract.

Arms exports are virtually the only more or less reliable source of receipts for Ukraine. This is exactly what determines Kyiv’s official position in evaluating the situation in Pakistan. As we know, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has disseminated a statement pointing out that the events in Pakistan are the internal affair of that country. In its turn, deputy director of Kharkiv’s Malyshev Plant Yuri Myrhorodsky told the mass media that the military coup in Pakistan will not prevent Ukraine from finalizing its tank contract, which has actually been confirmed by sending the last batch. As to further military and technical contracts between Islamabad and Kyiv, their principles were formulated for the Ukrainian State Service for Export Control as follows: since no international sanctions have been imposed against Pakistan, there are no obstacles to the arms business.

The large batch of tanks delivered to Pakistan from Ukraine has made India more willing to upgrade and increase its tank arsenal. More specifically, New Delhi intends to buy from Russia 200 T-90 tanks, and the decision in this regard is expected to be made in mid November. If this contract is signed, it is quite likely that Pakistan will again turn for tank services to Ukraine.