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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Ukrainian Military Personnel are Transporting Weapons

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Last Friday’s New York Times asserts that the Ukrainian IL-78 crashed a week ago near the Eritrean capital of Asmara was carrying weapons onboard. According to the report, the other week Ukrainian planes chartered by the Eritrean government completed nine flights from Bulgarian Burgas to Asmara and ten more such flights are expected to be completed soon. The fact that the Ukrainian plane carried weapons on board was indirectly confirmed by the Eritrean State News Agency which, nevertheless, refused to state what kind of luggage was carried by the IL-78. Oleh Bykov, press spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry on Emergency Management who personally visited the crash site confirmed that the Eritrean Ministry of Defense was the cargo’s recipient but that the wreckage showed that there were no weapons or military equipment onboard.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian mass media make no secret of the fact that it was weapons that were being transported from their country to Eritrea and that Ukrainian military pilots were carrying them.

However, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied the crew's connection to the Ukrainian armed services, stating that all the pilots had been discharged from regular service. Still, the situation with the crew commander Lieutenant-Colonel Zinovyev is unclear. He is said by the Ministry to had submitted his letter of resignation, and while its processing was still underway began working on a contract basis with the Ukrainian cargo company which has rented a number of planes from the Military Air Forces for commercial use and conducted charter cargo flights to Eritrea.

Valery Korol, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesman, told journalists at a press-conference that military pilots are not rich people and they do not mind flying for commercial companies provided that the flights are legal. Formally, Ukraine, transporting weapons to countries on verge of war, has not broken any international norms. But the West, especially the US, have forbidden their cargo airplanes to be used to transport weapons both to Eritrea and Ethiopia as well as selling weapons to those countries at all. Apparently, the Ukrainian government would not be able to control such a ban even if it had been adopted. Meanwhile, there is a demand in hot spots for Ukrainian military pilots, eagles of the sky who have flown under all conditions, able to take off or land from jungle to tundra, and, most importantly, are extrordinarily cheaper than their colleagues abroad.

 

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