- cross-posted to:
- europe@lemmygrad.ml
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:cereal1: look OP, there's no reason to wildly exaggerate the numbers in your titles like this— they're already bad enough
:cereal2:
Volodymyr Pikuzo does not look like someone immersed in the shadowy arms trade, scouring the globe in search of weapons capable of sending Russian troops to an early grave.
Yet that is precisely what the 38-year-old lawyer has been doing for two years, having founded Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency shortly after President Putin invaded his country. “In Ukraine we have a saying that not everyone can become a lawyer, but a lawyer can become anyone,” he says.
He gained insight into the trade — enough to know that, when the invasion began, Ukraine’s [state-owned] network of manufacturers, dealers and government agencies were too cumbersome to source the weapons it needed at pace. The creation of the agency was an attempt to streamline these relationships.
After meeting Oleksii Reznikov, who was the defence minister, he founded the agency in July 2022 and is now deputy director.
Lmao. Instead of just nationalizing your security industries, they’re busy selling weapons to epic action blockbuster characters. If the government allowed me to dodge the draft and give them quotes without being held accountable, I’d be scamming the shit out of them.
Show
lmao
Pikuzo says it made repeated attempts to convince Norwegian and Swedish manufacturers to launch production lines but they refused, citing the high costs of investment and the lack of profitability.
Lmao
Kyiv has been forced to turn to other sources, including arms dealers and intermediaries in murky parts of the world. Characters such as Marc Morales, a 51-year-old Floridian whose company, Global Ordnance, has won more than a billion dollars in contracts from the Pentagon and Ukraine. His dealings with Ukrainian officials (not Pikuzo) have led to media scrutiny in the US.
If you’ve seen War Dogs, you’ll know that literally any shmuck with internet access can become an international arms dealer. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s procuring some dog shit ammo and charging Ukrainians a 200% premium
“In Ukraine we have a saying that not everyone can become a lawyer, but a lawyer can become anyone,” he says.
Least pompous lawyer
“We couldn’t even get the equipment to create our own weapons from the western countries,” he says. “It wasn’t official, it wasn’t forbidden at the diplomatic level, but in fact all of these negotiations stopped when it came to the shipment [of weapons and equipment] to Ukraine.”
I wonder why...
