To begin with, Ukraine had a very good start in 1991. There were sixteen military districts in USSR, three of which were located in Ukraine. And those were the most developed and well supplied districts. 1/5 of all Soviet weapons was left in independent Ukraine. Then the Capitalism has begun. Remember who is Victor Bout? I guess, not. But it was him who was portrayed by Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov in Lord of War. An enormous amount of Ukrainian Soviet arms was squandered. But even selling arms with FTL speed wasn`t enough to sell everything before it turned out that Ukraine needed those tanks and guns for it`s own purposes. Constructing new tanks? Yes. But there was an interesting episode, that explains a lot. Ukraine was to sell some four hundred BTR-4E Bucephalus to Iraq. It tried to, at least three times, but Iraq (!!!) wasn`t satisfied with quality. And the last lot has returned to Ukraine just in time to be partly destroyed, partly captured under Ilovaisk in August-September, 2014. You are also talking about Russian agents in Ukraine. What do you call an agent? A person, that acts in Russian interest? Yes. There are millions of them in Ukraine. Relatives, spouses, co-eds, friends... Some spare parts for Kharkiv and Dniepropetrivsk tank factories were made in Russia, some spare parts for Russian ICBMs were made in Dniepropetrivsk. Untill summer 2014 (We`re talkin` `bout Ukrainian Euro-integration, heh?). And Europeans will have to make a note to themselves: when Ukraine asks for something, it already conciders the thing it`s own and feels a bitter resentment if doesn`t get it (gas price discounts, visa-free regime with EU, you name it). You MUST give what Ukraine wants and Ukraine will concider later if it will pay for it.
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UkrainianSoviet arms was squandered. But even selling arms with FTL speed wasn`t enough to sell everything before it turned out that Ukraine needed those tanks and guns for it`s own purposes. Constructing new tanks? Yes. But there was an interesting episode, that explains a lot. Ukraine was to sell some four hundred BTR-4E Bucephalus to Iraq. It tried to, at least three times, but Iraq (!!!) wasn`t satisfied with quality. And the last lot has returned to Ukraine just in time to be partly destroyed, partly captured under Ilovaisk in August-September, 2014. You are also talking about Russian agents in Ukraine. What do you call an agent? A person, that acts in Russian interest? Yes. There are millions of them in Ukraine. Relatives, spouses, co-eds, friends... Some spare parts for Kharkiv and Dniepropetrivsk tank factories were made in Russia, some spare parts for Russian ICBMs were made in Dniepropetrivsk. Untill summer 2014 (We`re talkin` `bout Ukrainian Euro-integration, heh?). And Europeans will have to make a note to themselves: when Ukraine asks for something, it already conciders the thing it`s own and feels a bitter resentment if doesn`t get it (gas price discounts, visa-free regime with EU, you name it). You MUST give what Ukraine wants and Ukraine will concider later if it will pay for it.