Some Western weapons arrive in Ukraine in poor condition or with delays - NYT

Some deliveries of Western weapons arrive in Ukraine either with significant delays or in an unusable condition. And for some contracts worth millions of dollars, Kyiv has not been able to receive anything at all. This hinders the plans of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and holds back the counteroffensive.

Source. The New York Times found out.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion and as of the end of May, Kyiv has paid more than $800 million to arms suppliers, the NYT writes. However, some of these contracts, including those with Ukrainian state-owned companies that act as intermediaries, have not been fulfilled.

"We did have cases when we paid money and received nothing," confirmed Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Havrylov. According to him, the government is now analyzing past procurements and eliminating problematic contractors. The Defense Ministry is even taking legal action against two state-owned contractors, the NYT reports.

The newspaper also cites several cases where Ukraine received military equipment in an unusable condition. This does not apply to new types of weapons, such as American air defense systems – they come new, the NYT notes. But in a number of cases, Ukraine is receiving weapons that have been in storage for many years without major repairs.

One example is 33 self-propelled howitzers donated by the Italian government. The Italian Ministry of Defense does not hide the fact that the vehicles were written off many years ago, but Kyiv requested them, hoping to repair them.

To repair the Italian howitzers, the American Ultra Defense Corporation was hired and paid $19.8 million. However, 13 of the 33 vehicles are still unusable after the repairs, the NYT reports.

In February this year, Kyiv complained to the Pentagon about the work of Ultra Defense Corporation, and an investigation was launched. The corporation claims that Ukraine simply kept the howitzers in poor condition after repair.

Ukrainian officials have refrained from speaking publicly about the condition of the Western-supplied weapons in order "not to offend their benefactors," the NYT writes.

"We must remember that this is a gift," Havrylov said. But on condition of anonymity, another Ukrainian official confirmed that some of the delivered vehicles are in very poor or completely unusable condition.

However, Ukraine does not object to the supply of faulty equipment, as it can be used for spare parts to repair other machines, the NYT writes. For example, in January, Kyiv asked the UK for faulty AS-90 self-propelled howitzers to try to repair them and, if not, to use them for spare parts.

Due to the poor technical condition, the weapons sometimes arrive in Ukraine with long delays, stopping for repairs at intermediate points, the NYT writes.

For example, last summer, the United States was to send 29 Humvees to Ukraine from a warehouse in Kuwait. A pre-shipment inspection showed that 26 of the vehicles were in poor condition. Only by the end of August were the repairs in Kuwait completed, and the Humvees were on their way to Ukraine. But when they arrived at the base in Poland, experts found rotten tires on 25 vehicles. It took another month to replace them.

A similar problem arose with six M777 howitzers from the same warehouse in Kuwait. They were supposed to be sent to Kyiv at the very beginning of the war, but it turned out that the vehicles needed major repairs. In three months, the howitzers were repaired and sent to Ukraine via Poland. But in Poland they had to be repaired again.