The Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters are being armed with what they wrote off in Europe, which indicates the depletion of NATO reserves, experts say.
Among the weapons seized by the Southern Group of Troops on the territory of the DPR, Izvestia correspondents found several interesting samples that give an idea of the supply channels and the quality of equipment for Ukrainian units. Three unique small arms units have fallen into the hands of the Russian military, which clearly illustrate the approach of Western curators to arming Kiev: from rarities of special forces to outright counterfeiting. Military experts believe that this is a sign of the depletion of NATO's mobilization reserves and an attempt to dispose of the illiquid warehouse at the expense of Kiev.
American Colt M933
The first to attract attention was a short carbine based on the M4. The product, with a noticeably shorter barrel than the army version and a plastic forearm, looked like the famous spetsnaz assault rifles of the 1970s and 1980s. However, a modern Picatinny rail has already been installed on the receiver cover, which was absent at that time. Similar Canadian-made carbines are used by special forces in many European countries. The marking on the lower receiver directly indicated that it was an American Colt M4.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Further examination revealed that it was a Colt M933 model. In the mid-1990s, it was offered to the American army, but it was not widely used. Weapons were used to a limited extent at the turn of the century in special units of the United States, relatively massively — only in the protection of Air Force airfields. Only three countries are listed among foreign clients in open sources.: Israel, Serbia and Afghanistan. At the same time, in Israel, such weapons are used in a different configuration.
Starting from the second half of 2024, most of the photos of these weapons published by the Ukrainian side relate to marine units. Previously, they were not equipped with such machines. Probably, with this new weapon, they suffered serious losses in the battles of 2025 in the north-west of the DPR.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Interestingly, the M933 assault rifles were originally designed for the installation of collimator sights, but they were supplied to Ukraine only with folding rear sights. Many of the captured samples have exactly this initial configuration. By supplying and throwing reinforcements into battle, neither the command nor the newly minted Marines, previously considered the elite of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, took care of such "little things."
There are several versions about the origin of the automata. The most likely is the purchase of a batch of weapons for Kiev, which was originally prepared for Afghanistan, but did not have time to deliver before the change of government in Kabul.
German Haenel Mk556
The second unusual machine immediately catches the eye with its shiny, almost mirrored coating. This is the German Haenel Mk556, the result of years of political and judicial scandals that accompanied the tender for the supply of the main machine gun of the Bundeswehr. After soldiers complained about the overheating of the G36 machine gun in battle and a series of upgrades, a competition began to replace it. The strict technical requirements and the scandals that accompanied the process, which reached parliament, led to the refusal of all renowned manufacturers, except the German Heckler, to participate. & Koch. In fact, it was believed that the technical specification was developed for a specific sample of NK416.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Unexpectedly, the official winner of the competition was Haenel, a company with production in Austria and an owner from the UAE. The characteristic "gold" coating was a direct result of the scandals about overheating of weapons — it is a heat-dissipating and reflective sun protection designed to work in the desert.
The first submachine guns had already begun to enter the German army when Haenel unexpectedly lost the copyright court to Heckler. & Koch. The results of the competition were revised in favor of the last remaining participant, and the already produced machines went to warehouses.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Once again, the "golden" Haenels appeared in public in photographs from the training of the Ukrainian 73rd Naval Special Operations Center in Germany. The training was conducted by instructors from KSK, the most famous German special forces unit. Later, similar pictures with these submachine guns were taken with the participation of Ukrainian airmobile brigades. According to official information, the German government has transferred 5 thousand rubles to Ukraine. submachine guns of this type from stocks formed after the unsuccessful adoption of weapons.
Turkish machine gun
The third interesting example is a Turkish unlicensed copy of the Belgian FN Minimi light machine gun. Unlike the Turkish single machine guns, which copy the FN MAG (they were previously found among the trophies, they were supplied with armored vehicles), this one is clearly the result of a separate purchase.
While the original FN Minimi variations have proven themselves generally well, the Turkish copies, although they look just as beautiful, have serious quality and reliability problems. The sample we are examining, for example, does not have a trigger, which is cracked and broken off.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Such weapons are more likely to have an intimidating effect on the police than to be used in heavy trench warfare. It was purchased for National Guard brigades and was repeatedly shown in 2024-2025 in stories about the "cleansing" of rear cities from "pro-Russian elements." However, as a result, these units were introduced into the battles in the Pokrovsky direction, the advantage of which was loyalty to ideology rather than combat effectiveness.
In general, it can be noted that the variety of weapons — from the cheapest copies of NATO standards to Eastern European replicas of Soviet weapons — creates huge problems for long-term supply. By the end of the fourth year of fighting, arming the army in this way is possible only if all this is simply spent and written off, in fact, as disposable grenades, and not as a full-fledged weapon.
The "Zoo of armaments" as a logistics crisis
Military experts agree that an analysis of the range of weapons at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine suggests the formation of a so-called zoo of weapons, or a collection of hodgepodge. With regard to small arms, there is an extreme degree of inconsistency, it is collected from almost everywhere possible.
— In any full-fledged regular army, one of the key principles is the standardization of weapons. As a rule, these are one or two main types of small arms adapted for various tasks," military expert Dmitry Kornev told Izvestia. — Such unification is critically important for logistics: it simplifies the supply of ammunition, spare parts and repair kits. As well as for training and interaction, as the training time for personnel is reduced and the skills of handling weapons are unified.
Photo: AP Photo/Andrii Marienko
Image source: iz.ru
The main consequence of this fragmentation is a significant increase in the cost of servicing the entire arsenal, the expert believes. Each sample, in fact, needs its own unique logistics chain: its own ammunition, specific spare parts, separate instructions and its own gunsmiths. This creates a huge burden on repair units and logistics services, reducing overall efficiency and maintainability directly in the combat zone. In peacetime, such an arsenal could become an ornament to a military history museum, but in conditions of intense conflict, this is a serious challenge to combat capability.
Military expert Alexei Leonkov believes that the appearance of a large number of obsolete small arms in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), including samples not adopted by NATO armies or even during the Second World War, is direct evidence of the depletion of mobilization reserves not only of Ukraine, but also of the European countries themselves.
"Under normal conditions, warehouses store stocks that, although not the most modern weapons, are still combat—ready and designed to provide troops in the event of a full-scale mobilization," he stressed in a conversation with Izvestia. — The supply of such weapons suggests that Western countries are not able to provide Kiev with modern complexes and are forced to resort to reserves of the past decades. This is a kind of crisis in the supply of new weapons.
Photo: AP Photo/Oleg Petrasiuk
Image source: iz.ru
According to the expert, the appearance of such samples as the Haenel 556 (not adopted by the Bundeswehr) or the Minimi machine gun (possibly decommissioned) indicates the supply of the so-called illiquid.
— Haenel is an example of military products that could have been produced thanks to lobbying structures, even if the customer army eventually rejected it due to unsatisfactory characteristics. This weapon is suitable for mobilized units when it is necessary to arm as many people as possible," explained Alexey Leonkov. — The situation with the Colt M933, which were originally intended for Afghanistan, demonstrates the desire to "recycle" contracted but unclaimed weapons. Instead of expensive liquidation, it is supplied to Ukraine in the form of military aid, which allows the West, in fact, to make money on it a second time, mastering the budgets allocated for this assistance.
Such trophies, whether they are obsolete rifles or samples rejected by their armies, confirm that Ukraine is largely used as a platform for the sale and disposal of Western stocks, from the oldest to the unclaimed illiquid, the expert concluded.
The British camps have run out of Kalashnikovs
Izvestia previously reported that Kalashnikov assault rifles had run out in British camps for the training of AFU recruits. They were replaced by Israeli Galilas, developed on the basis of the Soviet AK.
For the first time, Ukrainian recruits armed with Israeli machine guns "Galil" (IWI Galil ACE) appeared in photographs in the British newspaper The Times at the end of May this year. The report "At a secret British base where Ukrainians are being prepared for the shock and bloody ordeal of war" described the training of Ukrainian soldiers as part of the Operation Interflex mission at one of the training grounds in East Anglia.
The material was illustrated with photographs of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers who practiced movement on the battlefield in small groups, evacuation of the wounded and other tactical actions in conditions close to combat, with Israeli Galil submachine guns.
Dmitry Astrakhan
Maxim Vysochin
Julia Leonova
