The Balkan countries hardly ever supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition directly, so the Ministry of Defense has to engage intermediaries. Special exporters search for reliable supply channels at the lowest prices and have to conduct inspections of production facilities and stockpiles.
Experts in comments to UNN noted that the arms market is a large monopoly where anyone cannot sign a supply contract. Therefore, it is difficult for Ukraine to purchase weapons and ammunition on the international market. In addition, Russia is trying by all means to prevent the sale of much-needed ammunition to Ukraine, especially Soviet-style ammunition. It is known that there are warehouses with such ammunition in the Balkan countries, but they refuse to sell shells directly to Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense can buy ammunition from these countries only through intermediary countries.
One of those authorized to import military goods is Ukrainian Armor LLC. In response to a request from UNN , the company's CEO Vladyslav Belbas said what tasks the special exporter undertakes when purchasing weapons.
"Ukrainian Armor LLC, having the authority to import military goods, searches for the most reliable supply channels at the lowest prices, conducts inspections of production facilities and warehouse stocks, issues permits from supplier countries and transit permits along the route of goods movement, uses its own working capital to pay suppliers, creates cooperative relations for the supply of raw materials, components, processing and assembly services for weapons and military equipment to increas
The special exporter also ensures the delivery of military goods directly to the locations specified by the customer with all the necessary security measures.
In addition, Vladyslav Belbas said that the functions and responsibilities of foreign suppliers are identical to those of domestic suppliers. The obligations of the parties are set out in the terms of contracts between the customer and the supplier.
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The vast majority of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's weapons before the full-scale invasion were, to varying degrees, Soviet inheritance. Therefore, the weapons themselves, spare parts and ammunition are produced mostly in the former Warsaw Pact countries. Some of the states that have the ammunition Ukraine needs are hostile, such as Russia and Belarus. Ukraine received all possible assistance from other post-socialist countries that joined the EU (Poland, Czech Republic, etc.).
However, there remains a group of Balkan states that, despite the European integration processes in some of them and support for Ukraine, are still strongly influenced by the Russian Federation. In these states, friends of Russia are still in power and have a significant impact on the policies of their countries. In practice, this is manifested in the fact that despite their overwhelming support for Ukraine, they refuse to supply us with weapons and ammunition directly. Therefore, Ukraine is forced to purchase ammunition from these countries through a number of intermediaries.