Over $ 4000 per projectile: speculators raise weapons prices for Ukraine - media

According to Volodymyr Pikuzo, a representative of the Defense Procurement Agency for The Sunday Times, the Soviet 122mm shells for the Grad RSSU were sold at the beginning of the war, and now they cost $ 6,000, although Ukraine receives $ 4,700. The prices of 152 mm artillery shells have also increased-from $ 1,200 to $ 5727, and 125 mm tank ammunition cost $ 7420 compared to 1200. According to him higher prices.

Pikuzo also explained that despite the fact that Ukraine is buying a large number of Western weapons, Kyiv is still very dependent on those weapons that are not being produced in NATO countries. He noted that the proposal is limited and the market is "dominated by intermediaries and speculators", while stocks are quickly exhausted by both Russia and Ukraine.

The fact is that the experience of producing such ammunition in NATO countries is practically lost, so although countries such as Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia are currently restoring production, their production capacity is critical. On the other hand, it is difficult to explain the rise in weapons prices due to the opacity of the industry. Pikuzo, noted that weapons prices are really growing, because some suppliers deliberately hold back stocks, expecting further rising prices.

The lawyer explains that suppliers are ready to supply weapons to those who pay more. "The main purpose of any business is to make the maximum level of profit," says the agency's representative. In this context, the representative of the Czech firm Emaa Defense Michael Melichek. He confessed that he was offered Grad missiles more than seven times more expensive than he would pay at the beginning of the conflict.

"A few years before the war, they cost $ 800 apiece, but last year I was offered them $ 6,000 apiece. It's really madness. I would not pay so much and ultimately spent $ 3,000," he says. As a result, it turns out that armored dealers understand that they disrupted the Jackpot with the beginning of a full -scale war in Ukraine.