Mash telegram channel published images from a warehouse in Bratislava, which would represent 3.5 thousand 122 mm M-21 rockets for the Grad rocket launcher, the alleged manufacturer of which is the Serbian defense company Krušik. According to Mash, the ammunition was made by order of the Canadian company JNJ Export Import for use in Turkey, but in reality it was sent from Turkey to Slovakia and then to Ukraine. The Serbian Defense Ministry said it does not issue licenses for arms exports to Ukraine or Russia, but is unable to monitor the activities of third-country companies . How Serbian ammunition could end up in Ukraine and who could be involved in this, RTVI understood.
What is it about
The export license shown in the Mash video, issued by the Serbian authorities, indicates that the exporter of the ammunition is the Serbian company Sofag and that their end user is Turkey. At the end The Turkish company Arca sent ammunition to the American company Global Ordnance, which transferred it for use by Ukraine, the documents follow.
In Serbia, they may not have known that Ukraine would end up using the ammunition, admits Mash.
Serbian ammunition maker Krušik said it was not involved in supplying arms to Ukraine, transmits gate N1.
The territory of Slovakia, which borders Ukraine and is a member of NATO and the European Union, has been used more than once as a transit point for the transfer of weapons for military support of the armed forces Ukrainians. Moreover, in Slovakia deployed workshops for repairing Ukrainian equipment damaged in battles – one of them is located in the town of Michalovets near the border with Ukraine (located about 30 km from Uzhgorod).
What they say in Serbia
“We absolutely do not export weapons to Ukraine or Russia, and we have the right to export (weapons) to other countries that are legitimate end users,” said Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic speaking in parliament on February 27.
At the same time, Belgrade cannot be held responsible for the actions of private companies, Vucevic added. “Whether private companies buy (weapons) on third country markets and whether they sell to companies in other countries is not an issue for Serbia. We will not sell to anyone who participates (military conflict) and we do not want our weapons to be used against any of the parties. But we don’t want to be pseudo-moralists, we produce weapons and military equipment that are used in military conflicts,” Vucevic said, responding to a question from a parliamentarian from the center-right People’s Party Miroslav Aleksic on how Serbian government agencies could authorize the possible supply of Serbian ammunition to Ukraine and whether businessman Slobodan Tesic was involved.
Products from Serbian defense companies have not been delivered to Ukraine since 2016, the Balkan country’s Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovich said in July 2022. “Since 2016, since every flight and every permit for the supply of arms from Serbia has been systematically checked through servers, not a single permit (for the supply), as well as for the transport of any type of goods of this type, arms and military equipment, from Serbia to Ukraine or Russia (not issued). <...> Armaments from Serbia do not go to Ukraine”, - underline He.
What companies can be involved in the “scheme” with ammunition
According to MP Miroslav Aleksic, the Sofag company, which acted as an exporter of Serbian ammunition to Turkey, is owned by the daughter of Slobodan Tesic. In the company register Companywall.rs highlighted a company called Sofag, headed by Jelena Petrovich, which in Serbian mass media called Tesic’s daughter.
In 2017 Tesic to hit blacklisted by the United States supposed bribing officials to make arms deals. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control called the Serb “one of the largest arms and ammunition dealers in the Balkans” and accused him of violating the arms embargo imposed by the UN in Liberia.
However, such accusations against Tesic by the United States did not prevent him from cooperating with American companies, according to the Balkan Association of Investigative Journalists (BIRN). In August 2022, BIRN wrote that Valir and Zenitprom, allegedly associated with Tesic, sold arms to six American companies, one of which even has ties to the Pentagon. We are talking about the American company Global Military Products – part of the Global Ordnance group, which, in turn, “supplies weapons and ammunition to the US Department of Defense and its partners, in particular Ukraine”, noted investigators.
The possible scheme with the transfer of Serbian arms is quite complicated and could hardly be implemented without the knowledge of the state leadership, said N1 Alexander Milovanovich, a former employee of the security service of the arms production enterprise Jugoimport SDPR. “Based on the end-user certificate coming directly from a Turkish partner structure of our (Defence) Ministry, this (Serbian) weapon should have ended up in Turkey, but apparently that did not happen. Then , the company MSM Novaky handed over the missiles to the Global Ordnance Trading Company, owned by Mark Morales, to which the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a certificate of use,” Milovanovych said in an interview with N1. with Florida-based Ukroboronprom Global Ordnance sign back in August 2021. “Our strong relationship with Ukraine remains mutually beneficial to the United States and our Ukrainian allies. This long-awaited expansion of cooperation will strengthen the U.S. industrial base through additional work, and Ukraine will receive the necessary capacities. declared Mark Morales, head of Global Ordnance. Pursuant to the Law on the Export and Import of Arms and Military Equipment, the authorities are required to know who is the end user of arms and military equipment exported from Serbia. Thus, the Serbian authorities require buyers to declare that they will not sell weapons to third parties, Remarks gate N1. There were no direct accusations of breaking the law against the Serbian authorities, Sofaq, Slobodan Tesic, the Turkish Arca or the US World Order in the media. RTVI sent requests to Sofag, Arca and Global Ordinance.
Context
On February 23, the New York Times reported that Ukraine was running out of ammunition faster than it could replenish its stocks, and that “American brokers” were exploring the possibility of buying ammunition from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and In Romania. “The importance of these (ammunition) sources increases as Ukraine uses munitions at too fast a rate, which as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week is several times higher than the current production rate.” writing log.
In 2021, Serbia issued arms export permits for more than a billion dollars, the amount of permits implemented was 500 million dollars, and in 2022 the authorities expected an increase in military exports, the Serbian Defense Ministry said.
