SECOND BATCH OF UKRAINIAN TANKS FOR PAKISTAN NEARING COMPLETION.

Russia’s unwillingness to cooperate will not prevent Ukraine from shipping a second consignment of T-80UD tanks to Pakistan later this month as part of a $650 million deal ultimately to provide 320. The director of the Malyshev plant in Kharkiv, Hryhory Malyuk, said yesterday that his factory would complete the assembly of 35 tanks by April 20. Last month, the first shipment of 15 tanks left for Pakistan. Malyuk said that Malyshev was being geared up to produce the 125mm guns previously supplied by Russia and that, in the interim, the tanks coming off the assembly line were being equipped with guns taken from the stocks of the Ukrainian Army. More than 1,300 T-72s and 300 T-80s are in the Ukrainian inventory — all equipped with the same 125mm gun used in the export version. He added that other Ukraine companies would produce some of the other components once only made in Russia. (Interfax-Ukraine, March 31)

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