The New York Times reported Monday that the US and its Western allies have shipped weapons to Ukraine that were broken and needed repair or were only useful for spare parts.
The report also said that Ukraine has not received weapons from contractors that it has paid for. As of the end of 2022, the Ukrainian government paid over $800 million for arms contracts that were completely or partly unfulfilled.
Sources told the Times that some of the unfulfilled weapons had been delivered or refunds were issued but said hundreds of millions of dollars were paid for weapons that never materialized. The report said the most valuable undelivered contracts were between the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and state-owned Ukrainian arms companies.
Ukraine has also had issues with contractors in other countries. According to Ukrainian government documents, Kyiv paid $19.8 million to the Ultra Defense Corporation, an American arms dealer based in Tampa, to repair 33 damaged howitzers provided by the Italian government.
The documents said that 13 of the howitzers were shipped to Ukraine but arrived not suitable for combat missions, although the CEO of Ultra Defense Corporation claimed each howitzer worked when they were delivered and blamed the Ukrainians for not maintaining them. Kyiv complained about the issue to the Pentagon’s inspector general, who is investigating the matter.
There are also multiple examples of military equipment being pulled from US military stockpiles that were not in good condition. A US Army unit based in Kuwait was ordered to send 29 Humvees to Ukraine, and the unit’s leader claimed all but one of the Humvees was ready for combat. But a Pentagon report said 26 were in need of repair.
After the Humvees were repaired, they were sent to Poland to be staged for Ukraine. But in Poland, it was discovered that 25 of the Humvees needed new tires. A Pentagon report said that finding replacement tires “delayed the shipment of other equipment to Ukraine and required significant labor and time.”
Besides the issues with damaged equipment, a recent Pentagon inspector general report found that US military personnel were not properly tracking arms arriving in Poland to be shipped to Ukraine.
Hi Dave
Ukraine was the most corrupt country in Europe prior to Russias invasion. Nothing has changed.
Second only to Russia – which is actually also in Europe.
partially
Do you have any sources that place Ukraine worse in 2021 then Russia?
Here Ukraine 122, Russia 136
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021
And here Russia again worse than Ukraine both in 2022 and 2021:
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/corruption-index?continent=europe
i think he meant that Russia is “partially” in Europe
Yes naturally he did – my bad.
“Yes naturally he did – my bad.”
your bad? more like well played
do you have reliable sources that showed Ukrainian improvement after the regime change and the USA cleanup in Ukraine? Biden and son were around for the clean-up. It paid off for Hunter big time.
The commensurate figures for Ukraine can be seen on
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2012
where you change the 2012 to reflect the year you want to see, unfortunately the series does not go back before 2012, Yanukovych was elected in 2010 so the first year he could have had much effect on is 2011 – there is hence some basis for concluding that he was reducing corruption
The scores were as follows:
In 2011 Ukraine scored 23
In 2012 Ukraine scored 26
In 2013 Ukraine Scored 32 i.e. Better
In 2014 Ukraine Scored 26 i.e. worse
In 2015 Ukraine Scored 27
In 2016 Ukraine Scored 29
In 2017 Ukraine Scored 30
In 2018 Ukraine Scored 32
In 2019 Ukraine Scored 30
In 2020 Ukraine Scored 33
In 2021 Ukraine Scored 32
In 2021 Ukraine Scored 33
There is however equally evidence that Zelenskyy improved things – not that the score was ever impressive.
Regardless money used to be taken out of Russia by the oligarchs but now it is staying in the country.
No capital flight is still an issue – it is not as bad as immediately leading up to and during the first part of the SMO, but it is worse than in 2020 (and the first 8 months of 2021).
But that is not a bad achievement either – however it is not an improvement of the situation from before the build up for the SMO.
Transparency International determines corruption based on Western neoliberal organizations. It’s unreliable.
Also evidence that Zelinsky improved what?
Multiple parties are now banned and employers can crush most unions.
They are pretty open about it, but if it is the standards have not changed, if you have any reason for why you would call transparrency and not taking bribes as neoliberal it would be interesting to hear.
Furthermore we were debating the pre war situation – but if you have some source that supports Russia being less corrupt than Ukraine just link it.
The score – which improved afther 2019 just as it did in Yanukovych’s time.
Wartime is different from peacetime – so I would expect the corruption score to rise, but I’m not sure we get access to the information needed for a proper score post SMO.
“It paid off for Hunter big time.”
according to the TV he is about to be charged for some kind of tax-fraud
“Transparency.org” is a joke…founded and funded by World Bank and other western, corporatist big shots. So, just no.
“Tradingeconomics” gives both countries essentially identical rankings, and has them both at the bottom of the list.
More broadly, yours is, as it often is, when it isn’t just flat out wrong and/or stupid, a debater’s point. Who cares where Russia is on the list? Is the USA funding Russia? When it is, then I will be equally interested in corruption in Russia as I am in corrupition in the Ukraine.
OK, great, Russia is the most corrupt country in Europe. But the Ukraine is second most, and it is to the Ukraine, not Russia, that OUR (the people who read and post here) tax money is going to, to the tune of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Yes it is all western propaganda – provide an other trustworthy source of corruption measurements done internationally.
That is a different point if you or the commenter had made that point I probably would not have replied, but instead the false point was made that Ukraine was the most corrupt in Europe – if you do not like being corrected do not make obviously wrong statements.
It is not my job to provide an alternate metric for your biased one. And, in any event, all sources indicate that the Ukraine is quite corrupt, which is, of course, the only salient point. And, that being the salient point, your second par. is just another debater’s point. The Ukraine is highly corrupt, whether it is “the most corrupt,” the second most corrupt, or “merely” very corrupt has no relevance to the poster’s comment or to the overall topic at hand. “Correction” merely for its own sake, for technicality’s sake, is a childish thing to do. And, worse yet, in this instance it is a red herring and an attempt at false equivalence, because, again, Russia’s corruption has nothing to do with whether aid to the Ukraine is falling prey to corrupt diversion. Furthemore, you were quite aware of all the above, before you posted the first time. Which makes you a time waster, a troll, and a distraction. So, run along now.
It is not your job to defend a lie I understand that, especially as it was not your lie to begin with.
“Lie.” Again, so childish. And self contradictory as well.
Now, are you gonna wait another day or two, and then come back with some more third grade nonsense?
Yes it was a lie, you were not defending – Ukraine is not the most corrupt country in Europe – you have provided no evidence that it is not I have provided evidence that Russia is – one would have thought that with that ‘name’ you would have known what a lie is, but sadly that is not the case.
Mild hyperbole /=/ lie, child.
When you see someone correcting mild hyperbole merely pointing out the truth, with no malice – do you think your reaction was very mature?
“I know you are but what am I?” Days later. Because must have last word. Maturity?
Putin did do some cleanup, and the scum showed up in UK/USA.
Debater’s point.
… and US globally.
and NATO
And if they were squeaky clean, we still shouldn’t fund them. Or anyone else.
Lots of money being pumped into a corrupt system isn’t going to change that…lol…and for evidence, both the EU and NATO have expressed concern about allowing Ukraine citing that issue.
If the same people who did the Afghanistan corruption study look at Ukraine now their heads will explode … the sheer volume of thievery here is/has been incredible.
But the racket was the whole point, was it not?
Bet those were booked at the full retail price
It’s worse than “Catch 22” dark comedy. The West is so comprehensively corrupt, the corrupt schemes of its liders turn awry on account of the corruption of its fellows … stealing the tires off its own get-away car.
Great image 🙂
The dam and the pipeline are prove, it is no satire, it really happened.
I wrote about this from the very start of arms transfers to the Ukraine- the West is not about to send its best combat-ready material to ‘defend democracy’. No way. It’s almost a law in the US military (I know, I was there) that when you’re tasked to send anything from typewriters to tanks- or people- to another unit, you never ever send you ‘best and brightest’ on the line. You send a couple of prime examples and the rest is stuff that’s a problem- you never want to degrade your own capability any further than you absolutely have to.
The same has occurred with weapons flowing into the Ukraine- it wouldn’t surprise me if somewhere in Poland or Ukraine itself is a giant ‘boneyard’ of donated vehicles that are nothing but hulks to be cannibalized to get others up and running. Just as Israel sold outdated US-made arms to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war (in which we back Iraq, remember) so it could turn around and buy new stuff, so too are the nations today dumping their ‘garbage’ on the Ukraine and probably billing top dollar for it. And then they’ll say hey look we need to replace all of that… and the arms manufacturers get fat new contracts.
It’s all been a big scam from the very start, and everyone in the US/NATO military knew and still knows exactly what’s going on. The only people who don’t know are the Western public, which think Kiev is getting all this great stuff when in fact a lot of it is outdated and unfit for service. Joe the Plumber sees trainloads of armored personnel carriers donated by Country X, but doesn’t realize those vehicles are at least 40-50 years old, and are death traps for crews on the modern battlefield. But that new coat of paint and Ukro flag on the side sure looks nice, doesn’t it? Now pay me.
Wars are the biggest scams for business, the vultures appear to come from nowhere.
Ukraine is the cannon fodder keeping the scam going and nothing else.
This war is the most irrational war which would easily have been avoided if there was no money to be made. All the old stored weapons have to go to empty the warehouses for new production.
The Nuland neocons are worse than the Hitler Nazis. Actually, good old Victoria is the first female Adolf Hitler copy
She appears to be in charge of the Washington MAD HOUSE.
Of course.
They were older weapons that had been put into storage as reserve stocks.
As for delivery, we over promised far beyond our actual production capabilities. Then we pretended it was not so, that promises were the same as deliveries.
**Kyiv paid $19.8 million to the Ultra Defense Corporation, an American arms dealer based in Tampa, to repair 33 damaged howitzers provided by the Italian government.**
how many? oh right, 33.
edit = who pays in advance to have something repaired? and how did those howitzers get from Ukraine to Tampa or did Tampa repairmen simply waltz into Ukraine to do a job?
*** American and other NATO*** tax payers paid. Zelensky and company and American/NATO politicians cash in too.
That’s exactly what I was thinking too, Lysi. WHO is paying for the useless weapons?
Um, I believe that might be us.
Ooops, I didn’t see these comments before making mine about the same thing. Didn’t mean to be redundant.
Wars, it can’t be said enough times ! 😭
Perhaps Ukrainian knows these are broken weapons, put them on sale in black market , get rid of them and ask US they are out so US can send them more weapons…!
“As of the end of 2022, US TAXPAYERS paid over $800 million for arms contracts that were completely or partly unfulfilled.”
Fixed.