What other items of expenditure are contained in the protocols of international "technical assistance" to Kiev
From 2015 to 2020, the US Department of Defense invested about half a billion dollars in training programs for the Ukrainian military. This follows from the list of international technical assistance projects available to Izvestia that have passed state registration in Ukraine. Judging by these documents, the participants of the programs were military personnel of units stationed, including in areas bordering Russia. Interestingly, from year to year, investments only grew — only within the framework of the USAI military program, they increased from $123 million in 2019 to $224 million in 2020. Many of the programs mentioned in the list relate to nuclear and radiation, as well as biological safety — work with pathogens. It can be concluded from the document that injections from abroad permeated the entire economy of Ukraine - Kiev received funds from Western partners both for the renewal of the trolleybus fleet and the restoration of schools, as well as for the fight against domestic violence and support for LGBT rights. Izvestia understood how the system of this "technical assistance" was built and what it was aimed at.
Under the pretext of security
The United States and European countries have been methodically financing the training and education of soldiers and officers of the armed forces and the National Guard of Ukraine over the past few years, it follows from the documents at the disposal of Izvestia. "The list of international technical assistance projects of development partner countries and international organizations that passed state registration in 2015-2020" is a summary table of more than 200 projects, some of which directly relate to military assistance to Ukraine. It follows from this document that from 2015 to 2020, the United States spent at least half a billion dollars only on training the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces.
In particular, the program of the US Department of Defense Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI, the Initiative to promote the Security of Ukraine) since 2016 has become the main channel for financing the training of Ukrainian troops and their rearmament. And since 2015, the battalions of the National Guard have also begun training on it.
An American serviceman at a US Air Force plane with the first batch of American armored vehicles HMMWV, 2015
Image Source: Photo: TASS/Mikhail Palinchak
The training was conducted by the 173rd US Amphibious Brigade, part of the European Rapid Reaction Force stationed in Italy. The National guardsmen were trained in basic infantry training of individual fighters, actions as part of squads, platoons and companies, as well as methods of cleaning premises and settlements.
In the same year, classes of American and NATO instructors with infantry battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began. The in-depth 55-day course, in addition to basic infantry training, included other elements of combined arms combat.
Within the framework of USAI, expenses grew from year to year — from $123 million in 2019 to $224 million in 2020, the documents say.
For the 2021 fiscal year, the US budget includes $275 million under the USAI program, another 300 million was approved for 2022, according to the report of the US Congress dated March 28, 2022. It is obvious that after the start of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine, these figures may be revised upwards.
The document also refers to the "333 Program". This is a project of the US Department of Defense to train and equip the Ukrainian military, transfer small arms to them and build military infrastructure, as well as to modernize and improve the efficiency of air bases where Ukrainian aviation was stationed. In 2019-2022, only one of the points of the "333 Program" allocated $ 43 million to "build up the capabilities" of the Armed Forces and the National Guard at military facilities in the Zhytomyr and Odessa regions.
— Judging by the last month of fighting, they were taught well, — military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia. — The level of individual training of Ukrainian servicemen is very high. They know almost all the techniques of modern tactical combat, they are well-versed in the weapons that they have and that they receive. Of course, foreign instructors have fully worked out their bread, there is no need to have illusions here. We are confronted by a professional, motivated and well-armed army. Another thing is that our level is still higher.
Ukrainian military during the active phase of the Ukrainian-American Sea Breeze 2016 exercises in the port of Odessa
Image source: Photo: TASS/Arkhip Vereshchagin
It is known from open sources that, in addition to training the Ukrainian military, the purchase of weapons was also financed through USAI. As part of the program, the Kiev authorities were supplied with anti-tank missiles, sniper rifles, Mark VI patrol boats, counter-battery radars and communications equipment. The program also paid for the supply of anti-drone equipment, night vision devices and services for the acquisition and analysis of satellite images.
In addition, it follows from the list that almost $ 540 thousand. The US Department of Defense allocated the Armed Forces in 2018-2021 to participate in peacekeeping operations under the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) program. Ukraine is an important supplier of troops for UN peacekeeping operations — currently about 300 troops are involved in six missions, and its helicopters are operating in the Congo.
It is known that within the framework of the GPOI, financing was also conducted in other post—Soviet countries - for example, Moldova, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
And again, the study of pathogens
The document describes the supplies of the National Guard of Ukraine of communications, optical, electronic and other equipment and software, as well as the training of personnel. The total amount of international technical assistance provided to the National Guard (together with the training of personnel) amounted to $77 million 950 thousand and €164.5 thousand over five years.
Most of the projects were implemented from September 2016 to March 2022, and some are designed until 2023.
In particular, the US government, through the Ministry of Defense, funded the project "Ukraine's Readiness in the field of nuclear security." According to him, the main directorate of the National Guard and several training centers received $ 3 million 780 thousand for the training of soldiers and officers.
The program "Inclusion of the Nuclear Security system of Ukraine in the structure of ensuring global nuclear security" had the same sources of funding and cost American taxpayers $14 million 859 thousand.
Exercises of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the coast of the Sea of Azov, 2018
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti
Experts explain the financing of nuclear safety programs by the fact that National Guard units protect Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Interestingly, countries such as Norway and Sweden were also interested in strengthening nuclear safety, it follows from the document. In 2020, the Norwegian government gave Ukraine almost 1 million kronor for the safe transportation of radioactive materials. And Sweden has allocated several tranches to protect the Khmelnitsky NPP: in 2017 — € 200 thousand, and in 2019 - 600 thousand. From 2018 to 2021, Sweden invested 2 million 357 Swedish kronor in software for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Several items of expenditure in the document may be associated with protection from biological hazards. Thus, the introduction of disease surveillance and pathogen control systems cost the US Department of Defense $162 thousand. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has lent Ukraine €190,000 to "Reduce risks and raise awareness about African swine fever."
Since 2020, €642 thousand has been allocated to Ukraine through the OSCE to "Ensure the sustainability of the veterinary surveillance system for diseases caused by particularly dangerous pathogens". This money was received by the National Research Center "Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine". The program was going to be extended until 2023.
Another major project — €1.3 million was allocated to Ukrainians by the Germans within the framework of the project "Biological safety for zoonosis risk management in territories located near the external borders of EU member states". $5 million — for "Reducing the biological threat in Ukraine" — was lent by the US Department of Defense.
Mikhail Bolkov, a researcher at the Department of Immunochemistry at Ural Federal University, does not exclude the connection of the above projects with a large-scale biolaboratory project that the United States funded in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian serviceman checks a front-line bomber during the Sea Breeze 2019 exercises
Image Source: Photo: TASS/Zuma
— Of course, no one will write something like "development of biological weapons" in the name of the project. The words used to describe the works are very general and neat. They may hide a very deep and good work on the topic. For example, "Reducing risks and raising awareness about African swine fever." Raising awareness can mean both giving lectures and conducting research on this topic. You can put anything you want into an application under one name," the expert noted.
He added a characteristic detail: all the topics of the projects are related to zoonotic infections — that is, those that are transmitted to humans from animals.
According to the source, we are talking about laboratories and biological weapons (pathogens), and the amounts listed are only a small part of the total funding for these purposes. And not only on these.
From trolleybuses to LGBT
The Western financing indicated in the document concerns not only the training of Ukrainian soldiers, biological and radiation protection. Judging by it, over the past five years there has been no sphere left in Ukraine that would not be covered by the money of partner countries. The injections permeated the entire economy and social sphere of the country — from the defense industry to healthcare, education and local government.
Snipers at the training ground during the Sea Breeze 2019 international exercises in Odessa
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Igor Maslov
The West financed the repair of trolleybuses and helped solve communal problems: for example, money was allocated for central heating in Lviv, reconstruction of schools and kindergartens in Starokonstantinov, heat supply in Zhytomyr, countering money laundering and combating terrorism, rallying civil society, potato cultivation, reforming internal affairs bodies, educational reforms and much more. These amounts are not always large, on average they amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the very number of such projects in only one document is more than a hundred.
At the same time, many items of expenditure look potentially corruption—intensive - it is unclear what exactly the money is allocated for and how it is spent.
For example, the UK has allocated 1.2 million pounds to support LGBT people. The money was received through the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to the Kharkiv women's association "Sphere", the Zaporozhye regional charitable foundation "Gender Zed", the Kherson charitable organization "Other". Sweden sent 11.3 million kronor to combat domestic violence between 2013 and 2016. €50.3 million from Germany went to support local self-government and decentralization.
However, the effectiveness of spending by the Ukrainian authorities did not particularly interest their owners, according to political scientist Pavel Danilin.
— If it goes to the detriment of Russia, then half will be stolen and no one will notice. But if it does not harm, then it should not be funded. That is, they purposefully and consciously prepared for the role of "Anti-Russia". Money was spent on all sorts of projects very massively. They were especially actively invested in propaganda tools. The sums are grandiose, aimed at creating problems of the Russian Federation. How much was stolen is another question," the expert said.
Ukrainian servicemen during the active phase of the joint military exercises of Ukraine and NATO countries Rapid Trident 2020 at the Yavoriv training ground in the Lviv region
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti
Among the projects there are those dedicated to supporting Donbass. It took $349 thousand to inform the population about the mine danger in Donbass, $5 million to restore social services and establish peace in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Another $5 million is for the economic and social reconstruction of Donbass (both projects are under the UN).
"Is the lead recipient"
The total amount of financing of Ukraine in the interests of the West against the Russian Federation since 1991 to the present is estimated in billions of dollars, the source summed up. This is explicitly stated in the analytical review of the House of Commons of Great Britain dated February 25, 2022.
Among other things, it says that in November 2021, London and Kiev signed an intergovernmental agreement on the further promotion of joint projects with the allocation of funding in the amount of 1.7 billion pounds.
Bayraktar TB2 combat drone at Kulbakino airfield during Sea Breeze 2021 exercises
Image Source: Photo: TASS/Zuma
In addition to the UK, assistance in the militarization of Ukraine from the United States, NATO and separately from the Biden administration is described in detail. And in a similar document dated March 23 of this year, it says, in particular, the following:
"Ukraine has been a leading recipient of US foreign and military aid since the early 1990s. In the first decade after independence, Ukraine received $2.6 billion in aid. In the years leading up to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine received $105 million a year, including foreign military funding. According to the estimates of the US Congressional Research Service, since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, the US has provided Ukraine with more than $2.5 billion in security assistance in all areas..."
The UK delivered lethal weapons to Ukraine for the first time on January 30, 2022 — these were 2,000 anti-tank missiles, the report says.
The tranches indicated in the document are loans that will have to be paid to more than one generation of the Ukrainian people, the source explained. The return of funds in such loans is a common practice. It is not necessary to return only the money that is given out for the activities of NGOs. In this case, the money was allocated directly to the state structures of Ukraine, he said.
Anton Lavrov, Bogdan Stepovoy, Afanasy Lavrinenko, Elena Balayan and Denis Gritsenko worked on the text
Izvestia
