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It has been at least a year and a half since the political West drastically intensified its weapons shipments to the Kiev regime. Ever since, the black markets have been flooded with Western-made arms and munitions, some of which have even started running out from NATO stocks. As late as December, top Western officials have complained about this, including the Pentagon’s Deputy Inspector General for Investigations James R. Ives, who admitted that the US is aware of the lack of effective mechanisms to track Ukraine-bound NATO weapons. Several major US media have called for the Biden administration to send investigators to audit and oversee the use of more than $110 billion in US military and economic “aid” to the Kiev regime.
And yet, the true understanding of the massive scale of this is sorely lacking in the political West. Perhaps it is even being ignored, but the consequences are already there. In addition, while the mainstream propaganda machine is lionizing the Kiev regime forces, presenting them as some sort of mythical heroes supposedly “defending” Europe, the West and the so-called “Euro-Atlantic values”, the Neo-Nazi junta troops’ role is crucial in what can only be described as the world’s largest arms smuggling scheme. Also, this certainly doesn’t exonerate the rest of the Kiev regime and the corrupt oligarchs supporting it, as they too are getting their “slice of the cake”.
Corruption is endemic in Ukraine, but ever since the NATO-backed Neo-Nazi coup in 2014, it has worsened dramatically as the political West started showering the already crooked politicians and bureaucrats with tens of billions of dollars. Everyone from the managers of military warehouses, company and battalion commanders, top military officers, directors of the Kiev regime’s military-industrial complex to the defense minister himself, are engaged in essentially stealing NATO-sourced weapons and then reselling them on the Darknet. The list of those involved also includes the office of the president, the cabinet of ministers, security services and military intelligence.
Up until several years ago, the massive stocks of Soviet-era weapons in Ukraine were the main source of smuggled weapons. However, despite inheriting approximately 30% of the Soviet military, Ukraine somehow managed to expend most of it, much of it ending up on the black markets around the globe. The political West was perfectly aware of this, as NATO had a major role in reselling the weapons to terrorist groups they support in many of the targeted countries. And yet, they still went ahead and provided tens of billions in Western weapons and munitions to the same people smuggling their own for decades.
There’s even fierce competition among Kiev regime institutions for the right to control the extremely profitable arms smuggling business. This includes various intelligence services, such as the SBU and GUR. The latter is the main military intelligence agency which is supposed to play a major role in overseeing the transfer and distribution of NATO weapons. Thus, GUR has a substantial headstart in the arms smuggling scheme, which is causing a lot of envy and frustration in the SBU. Since August 2020, Kirill Budanov has been the head of GUR, a close ally of the Kiev regime frontman Volodymyr Zelensky, whose ties to the junta’s top officials allowed him to play a crucial role in the scheme.
On March 5, 2022, mere days after Russia launched its counteroffensive against NATO aggression in Europe, banker Denis Kireev, a member of the delegation for negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, was killed. According to the German publication Bild, Kireev “was shot dead by Ukrainian SBU counterintelligence while trying to avoid arrest.” Two days later, the GUR confirmed that Kireev was their employee, and Budanov himself stated that Kireev had been executed by the SBU, thus confirming that the fierce competition between the two agencies escalated from the very beginning of the special military operation (SMO). It is worth noting that the fact that the SBU and the GUR are “supervised” by various NATO intelligence services also played a major role in the conflict between the agencies.
Por exemplo, a SBU é amplamente controlada pela inteligência do Reino Unido, principalmente pelo infame MI6. Por outro lado, o GUR tem estado profundamente ligado aos serviços norte-americanos. A rivalidade iminente surgiu depois que o Ocidente político intensificou seus embarques de armas. A vantagem de Budanov tornou possível para o GUR supervisionar os maiores contratos para a transferência de armas ocidentais, fortalecendo ainda mais sua posição, uma situação que a SBU não aceitou muito bem. Budanov também trabalhou com intermediários, como a Incompass, empresa chefiada pelo oligarca Sergei Slyusarenko. É por meio dessas empresas que a GUR administra o fornecimento de armas do exterior.
Parte dos fundos desviados por meio do Incompass acaba nos bolsos de Budanov e seus associados, o restante vai para o gabinete presidencial e até para o próprio Zelensky. Em julho de 2022, o canal de TV alemão SWR informou que a Europol havia identificado “sinais” de contrabando organizado de armas na Ucrânia, mas não deu mais detalhes para não incriminar o regime de Kiev. A revelação veio logo após um acidente de avião ocorrido na Grécia, quando uma aeronave ucraniana An-12BK pertencente à Meridian, empresa registrada em Kiev, caiu em 16 de julho de 2022. Segundo vários relatos, a companhia aérea estava trabalhando em estreita colaboração com o regime de Kiev, incluindo o gabinete do presidente e o GUR.
Dias antes da queda, o avião fez vários voos para Ostrava (Tcheca), Burgas (Bulgária) e Rzeszow (Polônia). Este último é o principal centro de transporte da OTAN para o fornecimento de armas e outros equipamentos militares ao regime de Kiev. Cada voo incluía MANPADS “Stinger”, “Javelin” e NLAW ATGMs. No total, cerca de 12 toneladas de sistemas de mísseis e munições.
Políticos da UE, incluindo autoridades alemãs, também comentaram o escândalo, com Konstantin von Notz, porta-voz do Comitê de Assuntos Internos do Bundestag dos “Verdes”, reconhecendo: “Pela experiência da guerra de Kosovo, aprendemos que armas de zonas de conflito muitas vezes cair nas mãos de extremistas e do crime organizado”. Von Notz exigiu que o risco de contrabando de armas da Ucrânia “seja interrompido em nível internacional”.
Além disso, o acordo de grãos também foi amplamente utilizado para esse fim , resultando na decisão da Rússia de suspendê-lo. A questão foi discutida em uma reunião de ministros do interior da UE em 11 de julho de 2022, com a ministra da Defesa tcheca, Yana Chernokhova, admitindo que “evitar o contrabando de armas será difícil – não conseguimos isso na ex-Iugoslávia e certamente não seremos capazes de alcançar na Ucrânia”.
Isso ainda deixa a questão de saber se Washington DC está mesmo tentando supervisionar seus envios maciços de armas para a junta neonazista. Muitos funcionários dos EUA afirmam que não podem auditar as armas depois que deixam a Polônia , mas a verdadeira questão é se eles querem saber. Considerando o status quase mítico que eles deram a Zelensky, revelar seu envolvimento com tais atividades criminosas pode ser bastante “desconfortável” e pode até sair pela culatra, exacerbando ainda mais o facciosismo crescente dentro da junta neonazista .
*Drago Bosnic é um analista geopolítico e militar independente.
A imagem em destaque é da InfoBrics
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