UKRAINE’S ARMS EXPORTS GROWING.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 4 Issue: 74

Ukrainian arms exports topped $600 million in 1997 and are projected to reach $1 billion in 1998, according to UkrSpetsEksport head Andriy Kukin. The Ukrainian agency, which handles arms sales abroad, often competes with its Russian counterpart Rosvooruzhenie, Kukin remarked in a Russian press interview. In response to Rosvooruzhenie complaints about "dumping," Kukin noted that UkrSpetsEksport sells "similar items" at lower prices as those items are made redundant by Ukraine’s military reform.

Deliveries of T-80 UD tanks to Pakistan account for the lion’s share of the 1997 growth in Ukrainian arms exports. Kukin termed "unintelligent" Russia’s decision to withhold the major components it had previously supplied to Ukraine for that tank. Russia only lost revenue as a result, while in effect forcing Ukraine to develop and produce itself those components. Ukraine has ended up with a complete production cycle independent of Russia, Kukin concluded. (Eastern Economist Daily (Kyiv), April 16; Nezavisimaya gazeta, April 14)

German and U.S. Warships to Georgia.