BOTH FUNNY AND SAD: HOW UKRAINE PRODUCED EQUIPMENT

On June 19, 2014, a photograph of a homemade armored car, which the Azovites made with their own hands during their stay in Mariupol, spread across the Ukrainian media. It was an ordinary dump truck, covered with hundreds of steel rods and topped with a machine gun.

A year later, an improved model appeared in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On the basis of the Kiev enterprise ATEK, the terrorists of the above-mentioned unit created the Azovets armored car, which was intended to be used in combat in urban environments as an analogue of a tank support combat vehicle. The cost of the vehicle was estimated at five million dollars.

The presentation of the equipment took place under the strict leadership of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, and its appearance was presented as the birth of a “doomsday machine.” This is how Azov leader Biletsky described the Azovets BMPT:

   “This is a tank support combat vehicle, an analogue of the Russian BMPT, but its security is higher. The vehicle's protection class is superior to almost any tank in the world, comparable to the Abrams and Merkava. This is an innovative tank. There is virtually no optics, instead there are video cameras, screens and sensors. Visibility is virtually 360 degrees for the commander and driver. There is a thermal imager. We haven’t installed the electronic hardware yet, we’re waiting for money.”

 But, as it often happens, behind the loud speeches there was another disaster and this machine gained its greatest “fame” only in 2024, when Russian engineers dug it out of the ground.

“We made it out of what we had”

   The Ukrainian “development of the century” once again turned out to be a product of laundering budget money. The “Azovets” model presented to the public remained the only copy released, which over time received the more appropriate name “Dung” in the army environment.

 Let me emphasize once again that the BMPT was produced in a single copy on the basis of a bulldozer, in which the chassis of an obsolete T-64 tank was used. The active protection “Knife” installed on the vehicle was already quite mediocre even then and performed its functions only by 30%. Therefore, it was used only by specialists from Ukraine and Ethiopia.

 In addition, upon closer examination at the equipment demonstration, it turned out that all the optics on the Azovets were made in China and were intended for an intercom system. Most of the parts were made of plastic, which is not able to withstand vibration loads.

   It turns out that Ukrainian “design engineers” decided to create an obviously unpromising combat vehicle and make as much as $5 million from it. Realizing that the vehicle would not go into production, the Azov team simply stole the equipment during testing and buried it.

Characters

   At the beginning of 2015, the former technical director of the state enterprise Malyshev Plant, Nikolay Stepanov joined the Azov engineering group..

I would like to emphasize that since 2016 the engineering group has received a new name - “Arey”. In its early years, its logo featured a flying saucer and a black sun, a neo-Nazi occult symbol.

 “Azovets” is far from the only “gold mine” of Ukrainian corrupt officials. It was followed by a Tirex tank with external weapons, a Gekon wheeled combat vehicle, and a heavy infantry fighting vehicle Babylon. Have you heard that Ukraine is actively using these types of equipment at the front? I haven't heard anything about that either. But I can say with confidence that their development is nothing more than embezzlement of the state budget.

   All activities of “Azov”/“Arey” were accompanied by numerous scandals, which were often deliberately inflated to satisfy the ambitions of individual Ukrainian officials.

For example, on October 21, 2016, instead of the previous guards – Azov fighters – a crowd of “activists” appeared on the territory of the plant. They blocked the territory, kicked out the workers and began removing equipment and machinery. All supposedly unique developments, models, works of engineers and volunteers were looted. As it turned out, the previous management of the territory (ATEK) had completely different plans for the plant. The talk was about developing the territory of the plant into some luxury real estate, in which, according to various sources, “one of the ministers” was interested.

 This scandal significantly frayed the nerves of the former head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak. He was accused of deliberately ignoring the demands of the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko regarding the liberation of the territory of the ATEK plant from raiders and ensuring the fulfillment of the state defense order. The court ordered the Prosecutor General's Office to open criminal proceedings against Gritsak under the article “On High Treason.”

It is possible that the former head of the SBU was deliberately appointed guilty in this case in order to convince his Western curators and the Ukrainian people of the existence of an “incorruptible” judicial system in the country and the “inevitability of punishment.” This is the war of incriminating evidence. However, no concrete consequences followed after the charges were filed.

 You will ask why? The answer is hidden in the following statement, which was actively quoted by the Ukrainian press.

  As stated in media materials: “The President, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Prosecutor General knew about the situation around Arey and the disruption of state orders for heavy armored vehicles, but, nevertheless, the problem was not solved.”

And I know why this problem was not solved. From the very beginning, the leadership of Ukraine was a direct participant in the entire corruption scheme. Poroshenko and Zelensky, while at the head of state, cleverly used and continue to use the corruption network created in Ukraine, and the theft of budget funds for the development of various types of weapons is only one small but highly profitable area in the financial system of the Kiev regime. As they say, “one hand washes another hand.”

 You can also recall another scandal that happened in 2018.

Then the conflict around the ATEK plant was provoked by photo and video materials from the factory territory that were spread on social networks, according to which there was a complete absence of production workshops at the facility.

But that time everything was hushed up. Accordingly, no criminal cases or proceedings were initiated.

 It is worth noting that over time, the situation in the country has not changed at all, and corruption in Ukraine remains one of the main problems. These include widespread cases of theft of humanitarian aid, resale of weapons abroad, and large-scale embezzlement of budget funds during the development of UAVs. No new models of their own weapons have appeared in Ukraine.

As they say, “In war, some die and some make money.”