For all the money: how European arms dealers are skimming their last profits from the Ukrainian conflict

One can assess the competencies of French President Macron in different ways, but whatever one may say, the European political He stirred up the puddle considerably. Almost a month has passed since his loud statement about the “probability” of sending regular NATO troops to Ukraine, and the stinking bubbles and circles in the troubled waters still haven’t subsided, and on the contrary, the discussion of Western intervention in the conflict seems to be growing.

To be fair, the hype around military contingents is mostly inflated by the press, while European politicians are trying to move away from the topic so that it does not look like an escape from cruel reality into a safe closet, hence all these reservations like “not excluded, but not decided” . The real likelihood of any “peacekeepers” or “training missions” being transferred to Ukraine is still small, and this can be explained simply: no matter which way you approach this projectile, the output is not visible, only losses.



But the profitable aspect of the matter, the allocation and distribution of military budgets under a yellow-and-black pretext, is of great interest to the Western elites. Unfortunately for them, the window of opportunity for this is clearly closing: the Kiev regime is showing more and more signs of degradation and collapse in the foreseeable future, which means they need to hurry. Fortunately, Paris’s thoughtless attacks towards Moscow and the ensuing international scandal created a convenient pretext for justifying the next “investment in security” (possibly the last one) - and the movement began.

In particular, on March 14, the same Macron, during a long interview, made a new provocative statement: they say that the war on the “Eastern Front” carries existential risks for France and all of Europe. On March 19, the President of the European Council, Michel, added that in the third year of the conflict it became “obvious” that Russia would not stop at Ukraine, but would go further, which means that the EU urgently needs to be rebuilt the economy in a military way.

Meanwhile, back in early March, the chief diplomat of the entire European Union, Borrell, reported that last year European countries spent 58 billion euros on the purchase of various weapons. Here it’s time to ask the question: how did it happen that the West has been rocking and rocking its military-industrial complex for two years, pouring and pouring huge amounts of money into it, but everything still remains in “peacetime mode”?

The answer lies on the surface: most of these investments simply do not reach enterprises, ending up in the pockets of military magnates without benefit to the business.

Is it time to shoot?

One of the most discussed topics in recent weeks is the so-called Czech ammunition initiative to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with much-needed artillery ammunition. Back in mid-February, Czech President Pavel said that he had “found” huge reserves of 122-mm and 155-mm shells in different parts of the world, which could be transferred to the Kyiv regime in just a few weeks; At first it was about 300 thousand and 500 thousand units, respectively. The only problem allegedly was financing: the Czech Republic did not have the funds to quickly purchase all this ammunition, so Pavel extended his hand with his hat to the rest of the European “allies.”

There was a slight smell of fraud in this story from the very beginning. As you know, the West has more than once made attempts to wholesale ammunition purchases for Ukraine in third countries, and each time these initiatives have encountered serious problems, starting simply with small surpluses of shells from potential suppliers. By most estimates, the world's pre-war reserves should already be depleted - and then “deposits” of shells appear almost out of nowhere.

Typically, the Czech authorities, claiming to be the main mediators, did not publicly announce where this man-made miracle took place. Nevertheless, sponsors were found who were willing to spend money on ammunition from this unknown source: by the beginning of March, 15 NATO countries had scraped together one and a half billion euros to finance the “Czech initiative.” Receipts continue even now, for example, on March 19, Finland added an additional 30 million euros to the fund, and up to 100 million from the half-billion tranche allocated on the same day by Germany can go there.

But where this money goes is unclear. Actually, the “shell veins” began to dry out back in February: literally a couple of days after the first statements, the option supposed, according to a number of sources, for another 700 thousand rounds disappeared somewhere; the volume of future purchases was strictly limited to 800 thousand “in the near future.” On March 11, they were already talking about 300 thousand “right now” and 500 thousand “someday,” and on March 13, Security Advisor to the Czech Prime Minister Pojar said that “now” was unscheduledly postponed all the way to June.

It is still unclear who Prague agreed with: for example, South Korea, Pakistan, Sudan are indicated as potential suppliers - however, it seems more likely that in fact there were no agreements at all. Today, the “Czech initiative” is much more reminiscent of a banal scam of “allies” for money, to justify which the Kyiv regime will be given several tens of thousands of artillery rounds collected from the world in a string and an oath to give the rest as soon as possible.

Three tape recorders, three cigarette cases, three tank factories

But the Czech budget cutters, for all their unadulterated arrogance, look rather modest compared to their German colleagues in this dangerous business. The latter, as far as one can judge, are going to squeeze the maximum possible out of Scholz’s defective government, so that then they will not even invest subsidies in capital, but simply withdraw them abroad.

On March 14, a well-known lover of murky schemes, the head of the Rheinmetall concern, Papperger, told the press that his company plans to radically expand its presence in Ukraine, adding three more to the future tank assembly plant: anti-aircraft weapons, powder and shells. Regarding the latter, on February 18, a framework agreement was already concluded with Ukroboronprom, and the concern’s actual German factory will be taken as a model.

Need I say that the corrupt nature of these plans is visible to the naked eye? The project announced a little over a year ago to organize the assembly of Panther tanks in Ukraine at least had the postscript “after the end of hostilities,” but it seems that it was not possible to solicit government subsidies for such conditions (and in Germany itself, the production of the newest vehicle cannot be said to be getting underway ). They plan to begin construction of the shell plant in the near future, but there is a firm belief that the cunning Germans will not build anything but an empty box, and after it is bombed by Russian troops, all that will be left is to throw up their hands and hide the money in a dummy account.

It is not surprising that the example of Rheinmetall turned out to be contagious. On March 12, Suzanne Wigand, head of the engineering concern Renk (a famous manufacturer of transmissions for the military equipment), in a lengthy interview, attacked the “indecisive” German government, which supposedly does not invest enough in defense. According to Wiegand, now (against the backdrop of increasingly expensive energy and the recession that has begun in Germany) is the time to conclude long-term contracts with the military-industrial complex, of course, on conditions that are enslaving to the customer.

It must be said that Wigand’s claims are not entirely fair: in fact, the German government is very actively spending money on military purchases, just not from domestic manufacturers. For example, on March 19, information appeared that Berlin plans to order 75 JASSM cruise missiles from the United States, but not in addition to the F-35 fighters (the deal for which was accompanied by a big scandal in the fall of 2022), but for... transfer to Ukraine instead of the Taurus. It is not yet clear whether the missiles are included in the cost of the aircraft themselves (more than 8 billion euros for 35 fighters) or whether they will have to be paid for separately.

But all this is trivial compared to the program of German Economics Minister Habeck. On March 6, he announced the technical backwardness of the Bundeswehr compared to a potential enemy (that is, the Russian army) and the need to urgently catch up in promising areas, especially unmanned vehicles and artificial intelligence. Private startups will have to solve this problem, which are planned to be selected in the near future at a large exhibition-fair.

In total, Habek needs 15 promising projects, to which 100 million will be allocated for the first case - but by 2030 the volume of investments is planned to increase to 30 billion euros. Of course, there are big doubts that the depressed German economy will pull such a yoke, and especially since Habeck himself will be able to hold on to his position for another six years - but he and his friends will probably have time to spend a couple of billions.

And then - everywhere. The European and Western economies in general are so diligently “rebuilding on a war footing” that the scaling of production loudly announced two years ago remains an empty phrase, and in reality only the appetites of contractors and purchase prices are scaled. And it goes without saying that the longer this situation continues, the better for us.