Ukraine’s defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom went on record through its official Telegram channel on Thursday to claim that reports – carried on a number of domestic and international media sites, that aviation components and spare parts that originated from Ukraine were being sent to Russia up until July this year – were “fake.”
Kyiv Post also carried the report on Wednesday. This referenced the original iStories report and other independent sources. It seems clear that the parts involved did come originally from Ukraine, as confirmed by customs data released in relation to the Russian company Avia FED Service.
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This data showed that between 2022 and 2023 the Russian company imported:
- parts for the repair of An-124 aircraft manufactured by the Kharkiv FED machine-building
- spare parts for Ka-32 helicopter manufactured by the Kyiv-based Radar plant
- parts for An-24 and An-12 engines produced by Motor Sich
- miscellaneous items from the Kyiv Artem plant, the Kharkiv Aggregate Design Bureau, Volchansk Aggregate Plant, and other Ukrainian enterprises
- numerous items from various French, US and UK companies
There was, however, no clear indication of when the equipment was originally produced or sold by the Ukrainian enterprises and to whom.
The Kyiv Post report and those carried elsewhere indicated that there appeared to be no recent direct business connection between the Ukrainian manufacturers and the Russian end user. The materiel was believed to have been sourced via intermediary companies that had acted to supply the parts to Russia.
Similarly, there was no evidence that the middlemen named in the articles, Linker and Bakaytorg1, had acquired the parts directly from the manufacturers.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council applied for sanctions against Avia FED Service in June 2018 but full sanctions under Presidential decree were only imposed on the parent company and its subsidiaries in 2021.
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According to iStories Alexander Reshetnik, a director of the Russian company Avia FED Service, the Ukrainian-origin products were old stock purchased in 2020 that had just been “laying abroad.”
While a number of media outlets categorized the issue as “Ukraine continues to supply Russia with spare parts for aircraft and helicopters despite war,” the Kyiv Post report took the line that the parts had “still been getting through” with no suggestion that there was direct collusion between the manufacturers and the Russian entity.
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