Ukraine sues Western arms dealers for not supplying weapons

Ukraine is suing at least two Western arms dealers for failing to come good on contracts promising military equipment, officials said.

Kyiv has increasingly turned to independent arms dealers in the West to supply its needs in defending itself from Russia’s brutal, nearly 19-month invasion.

In fact, about 11% of all those military contracts signed by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry have been with foreign suppliers — of which “only a few of them had difficulties in fulfilling their obligations in full,” a ministry spokesman told Newsweek.

Six foreign companies — including two from the US — “did not fully or partially fulfill their obligations under some of their contracts, but made a partial delivery or fully returned the funds,” the spokesman said.

Two European companies, though, “did not deliver the goods and did not return the advance payments,” the spokesman said.

The government has taken legal action against both delinquent suppliers, the rep said, without identifying the companies or the exact nature of the contracts, citing the protection of sensitive military information.

Sharing such information “may cause difficulties for foreign suppliers in fulfilling their obligations, such as concluding agreements with manufacturers and other participants for the purchase of arms and military equipment in countries with a neutral attitude regarding the supply of arms to Ukraine,” the ministry said.

However, then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced last month that the government has made several arbitration claims against the Polish Alfa weapons company.

“There are many such firms, and unfortunately not all of them were able to fulfill the signed contracts — even the influential players in the market,” Reznikov, who stepped down earlier this month at President Volodomyr Zelensky’s request, said at the time.

He added that the ministry had already won another arbitration case against an unidentified foreign supplier, and “there are also Ukrainian firms that didn’t deliver promised supplies — and American ones.”

In Alfa’s case, Reznikov said, the firm “offered us other types of projectiles; we are now studying whether they are suitable for us.

“And then we will either have them delivered, or we will demand the advance payment to be returned.”

The news comes just a few months after the New York Times found Kyiv had paid arms suppliers more than $800 million for contracts that went completely or partially unfulfilled.

Two sources familiar with Ukraine’s arms deals told the paper that some of the missing weapons were eventually delivered, but as of early spring, hundreds of millions of dollars had been paid for arms that never materialized.

At the same time, nearly one-third of Ukraine’s arsenal is under repair at any given time — hindering the country’s efforts to fight back against the Russian invaders.

Volodymyr Havrylov, the country’s deputy defense minister, said in June that the government has begun analyzing its past purchases and is now excluding problematic dealers from its contracts.

Ukrainian government documents obtained by the Times also show that its Defense Ministry paid $19.8 million to an American arms dealer, Tampa-based Ultra Defense Corp. to have 33 howitzers repaired.

The government alleges that 13 howitzers were shipped to Ukraine in January, but arrived “not suitable for combat missions,” according to the documents, in which officials accused the company of failing to properly finish a job that was supposed to be completed by late December.

“The American company, offering its services, had no prior intention to fulfill its obligations,” Ukraine’s defense procurement director, Volodymyr Pikuzo, wrote in a February 3 letter to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Matthew Herring, the CEO of Ultra Defense Corp., denied the allegations to the Times.

“Every single one of them worked when we delivered them,” he said of the howitzers, claiming the Ukrainians did not properly maintain them – including one with a coolant leak he said “magically appeared after delivery in Ukraine.”

The Pentagon said in June its inspector general was investigating the incident.

The Post has also reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.

In total, the United States has already sent Ukraine more than $40 billion in security aid, including advanced weapons like HIMARS rockets and Patriot missiles, while its Western allies have also spent tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons.

The US will now provide another $1 billion in aid to the war-torn country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last week, but less than 20% of the assistance — about $175 million — is earmarked to supply the munition Kyiv’s defenders desperately need to strengthen their counteroffensive and take back Russian-occupied territory.

Another $100 million will be put toward “foreign military financing” – a grant-like State Department program that helps other nations purchase weapons and equipment – the vast majority of the $1 billion package is expected to support non-military aid.