Ukrainian troops are demoralized, and not even by the events at Azovstal, which the Ukrainian command is even trying to present as a victory, but by the lack of food and weapons. “We were sent to our doom,” say messages of Ukrainian soldiers from the trenches. Surprisingly, in a few months of the special operation, Ukraine received more weapons than Afghanistan in 10 years. Where did it go?
This week, the US Senate approved a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine. However, it was not without a scandal. Firstly, the Americans are outraged that such sums are sent to Ukraine during a period of severe inflation, and secondly, even in peacetime Ukraine was a gray zone for selling weapons to black markets, and now Western weapons crossing the border find themselves in the Ukrainian black hole. It is becoming more and more difficult to save Ukraine privates! Details in Ekaterina Tikhomirova's section.
War is a profitable business if you approach it with a bog deal of cunning and get good connections. And while it is going on, and slogans about protecting the whole of Europe from universal evil are heard from the stands, the flow of humanitarian and military assistance is also growing. It seems that arms are flowing endlessly into Ukraine, but for some reason not a single rifle or a single cartridge reaches the trenches.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian ad sites are actively trading. This is from the first batch of British aid. Armored Land Rover SUVs are on sale, according to the website, the price is 54,000 euros apiece. There are 100 of them, according to the seller.
Oleksandr Mazur, Polish mercenary of the Ukrainian Armed Forces:
Mr. President Zelensky, please explain. People sleep under bare skies. They don't have anything. While there is everything, but we do not get it. 80% was simply plundered. Those who steal drive new jeeps. What's wrong with this country? You say give us troops. Ask people, forgive the Poles: give equipment, give this, give that. And nothing reaches the front.
A little scandal is brewing in America itself, a little one so far, but it's already threatening to become a real scandal. 40 billion dollars is a hasty decision to allocate such an amount to Ukraine. Yes, Senator Rand Paul tried to lie across this iron stream, but alas, the decision was made, the money will be allocated against the background of unprecedented inflation, without asking the Americans themselves, who already barely make a living. The US national debt has already exceeded $30 trillion and is increasing by $2 million every minute. As for an ordinary consumer: there is no bread for him, but there are a lot of military circuses.
Chip Roy, Member of the US House of Representatives:
We have a $40 billion bill vote at 3 p.m. I didn't even get a chance to look at this bill. My staff could not review this bill thoroughly and are trying to understand what’s in it. What are you gonna say? That are you standing alongside Ukraine? A $40 billion bill and you [Democrats] want to sit here and lecture this body about what we’re going to do or not do about standing alongside Ukraine? Why don’t we talk about the American people, the inflation that’s killing people, the jobs that people can’t get because the cost of goods and services in this country? And you sit and lecture when we can't even look at the rationale behind this $40 billion.
Marjorie Taylor Green, Member of the US House of Representatives:
Totally ignoring our border crisis, our crisis of baby formula, tough inflation, soaring gas prices that we can't afford, but giving $40 billion to Ukraine? Stop funding regime change & money laundering scams, and US politician cover-ups of their crimes in countries like Ukraine.
The 40 billion tranche is the second one since the start of the operation, the first one was in March and amounted to almost 14 billion. There's no money anymore. In this case, the logical question is: where do the weapons supplied by the United States and Europe go? After all, in a few months, the West has supplied Ukraine with more weapons than in 10 years of war with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. And a significant share is not armored vehicles or howitzers, but small arms and portable systems.
Andrey Koshkin, military political scientist (Russia):
We know how much weapons are now coming to Poland, then to send them across the border to Ukraine. But even the head of the Pentagon press service Kirby said that we do not know where these weapons, military equipment and ammunition go after they crossed the border, although these weapons are already found in the Middle East among terrorist organizations and in African states. In other words, we see that like in Afghanistan, weapons are beginning to spread among terrorist organizations around the world.
Ukrainians “do not report every bullet,” and the U.S. Department of Defense does not record exactly what weapons and to what unit they are specifically sent. Trucks with weapons are taken by the Ukrainian armed forces, mainly in Poland, and then transported to Ukraine. And the Americans do not know what is happening to it there.
Back on March 11, Ukraine made a requirement for weapons to fight Russia. They estimated their efforts at $100 billion. Fighters, attack aircraft, tanks, air defense, missile systems — there is a lot of things there, including ammunition, shells and drones. But according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, they have a victory at the front for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And the fighting is going on in the East of the country, where all this equipment cannot physically reach. Then where do such appetites come from?
The answer is simple: in order to sell it! Even in quiet years, Ukraine had a reputation as a “gray zone” through which weapons were pumped to unstable regions of the world. A document about the "surplus", Amendment No. 1919 of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, allows selling weapons even during martial law. The document states that "Scientific-Production Company "Techimpex" Ltd sells the “surplus”. The catalog contains neither more nor less than 970 pages of titles. Ukraine has 970 pages of weapons. Several years ago,"Scientific-Production Company "Techimpex" Ltd already took part in the “schemes” for the sale of Polish weapons to African countries. Let me explain that after the Maidan, weapons were required to conduct hostilities in the East of Ukraine, for which it received aid loans, and all this equipment and assault rifles purchased with credit money was resold by oligarch-controlled firms in Africa and the Middle East.
For obvious reasons, it is difficult to estimate the amount of Western lend-lease leaks from Ukraine. However, we can talk about at least 15-20%, which instantly flow to African countries. And according to the source of the Nezygar Telegram channel, supplies are engaged in military personnel of these countries, who came to Ukraine under the guise of employees of PMC group. They are going to strengthen anti-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq, and are resold on a commercial basis to Yemen and Myanmar. Payment is allegedly made in cryptocurrency and in cash. The total turnover of secondary sales of the “Ukrainian arms market” is $700 million per month, excluding crypto revenues. The process is supervised by the head of Zelensky's office “Andrey Yermak and MI6 employees attached to the President's office”.
Not only weapons, bypassing the trenches, are lost in the Ukrainian black hole, humanitarian aid for citizens is also being stolen. Moreover, a significant part of it is stolen even before the border with Ukraine.
Mikhail Khazin, economist (Russia):
This money is already being stolen in the territory of Poland. Those who embezzle in Poland are well aware that what gets to Ukraine will be embezzled by others. This is such an absolute phantasmogoria.
The volume of humanitarian aid supplies has fallen sharply. According to Forbes, the reason is public investigations of Ukrainian fraud. But the salaries of the leadership of the Ukrainian customs almost doubled, although budget revenues from its work fell by 5 times. It is not nothing but juggle with no fraud. Almost. By the way, humanitarian aid does not leave Ukraine, although it is no longer an aid, but a completely sold product on supermarket shelves.
I must say the scheme is really working. The war, you know, allowed for a lot of things to be written off. And for obvious reasons, the judicious people in the West start feeling muted horror. All supplies fall into a black hole. And it seems like it is necessary to supply weapons, but on the other hand, Ukraine, although on credit, has already robbed its population to the skin. A dry statement: saving Private Ukrainian is becoming more and more difficult and seems to be too expensive.












