Why Is Ukraine Showing Its Military Wares in the United States?
Ukraine is looking for lethal aid. Its defense industry is looking for partners.
In the market for a robotic ground vehicle made in Ukraine? How about an armored personnel carrier? You’re in luck. For the first time ever, UkrOboronProm, a government-run collection of enterprises from across the Ukrainian defense industry, is showing its products at the Association of the United States Army exposition this week in Washington, D.C..
In the market for a robotic ground vehicle made in Ukraine? How about an armored personnel carrier? You’re in luck. For the first time ever, UkrOboronProm, a government-run collection of enterprises from across the Ukrainian defense industry, is showing its products at the Association of the United States Army exposition this week in Washington, D.C..
Why, when Ukraine is asking the United States to provide lethal military equipment, is the company that provides weapons for its own forces touting its arms abroad?
“Considering our experience, we came here to show our expertise and potential—to show that we can be partners,” Roksolana Sheiko, director of communications policy for UkrOboronProm, told Foreign Policy in an interview at AUSA. “We are not politicians … we are ready to develop, to produce, and to supply.”
UkrOboronProm is in Washington to to look for Western partners, according to company representatives. Until 2014, over 50 percent of Ukraine’s military equipment was supplied by Russia. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 and then the war with Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have removed Russia from the picture. And so, in 2015, Ukraine began mass production of new weapons—and looked to replace Russia by working with, among others, U.S. partners.
Asked about markets outside of Ukraine, Sheiko noted that this was their third major expo in which the Phantom, an unmanned ground vehicle designed for “hybrid warfare,” has been displayed. In the United Arab Emirates last year, she said, the first iteration of the Phantom was hailed as one of the top two innovations by Defence Blog.
UkrOboronProm is happy to sell to any part of the world not under sanctions or other restrictions, Sheiko said. UkrOboronProm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkey, jointly manufactures armored vehicles with Thailand, and collaborates with Poland.
There’s one particular market that is of interest: UkrOboronProm sees potential in modernizing equipment used by former Soviet Pact countries, such as Poland. UkrOboronProm is offering to upgrade Soviet-era T-72 tanks with Ukrainian parts.
Asked whether they see a certain irony in replacing Russian parts with Ukrainian equipment, Sheiko insisted such competitive thinking is not a part of the calculus. Besides, they can say their tanks are combat-tested and “proven in actual war.”
Russia could perhaps say the same, but that might require admitting that it supplied T-72 tanks to separatists fighting in Ukraine.
Photo credit: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images
Emily Tamkin is a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews. Twitter: @emilyctamkin
More from Foreign Policy

What Putin Got Right
The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukraine—but not everything.

Russia Has Already Lost in the Long Run
Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future.

China’s Belt and Road to Nowhere
Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy is a “shadow of its former self.”

The U.S. Overreacted to the Chinese Spy Balloon. That Scares Me.
So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible.