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THE EXPERT COUNTED THE LOSSES OF DEFENCE CAPABILITIES OF UKRAINE DUE TO BLOCKING OF INVESTMENTS IN MOTOR SICH

During the years of the unjustified and illegal seizure of shares of PJSC Motor Sich, direct losses amounted to almost UAH 20 billion. Such calculations were published by a member of the board of the Ukrainian-Chinese Investment Club Andriy Pilipenko in his blog. According to the expert, the billions lost by the Ukrainian budget is a real blow to the defence capability of the belligerent country, which could equip its army with modern weapons for this money.

‘Over the years of the arrest of shares of Motor Sich, it did not get approximately a billion US dollars in revenue that is about 14 billion in UAH equivalent. Each hryvnia of the company’s net income provided about 0.25 hryvnia in taxes to the budgets of different levels. Consequently, losses to the budget system Ukraine from lost taxes for the period of the arrest in 2017-2020 amounted to about UAH 3.5 billion, according to the most conservative estimates,’ the expert wrote.

Pilipenko draws attention to the fact that while Washington put a scare into Kyiv with myths about imaginary losses from the participation of Chinese investors in the business activities of Motor Sich, Ukraine suffered quite real losses, not only in terms of finance.

‘While the media are throwing tales about how China will rely on Ukrainian technologies, Ukraine’s defence capability has already been undercut by the state’s losses from non-received tax payments by Motor Sich. Let’s calculate that our belligerent country could buy its military forces for the non-received UAH 3.5 billion: 17 newest French ships with weapons systems; 26 most modern tanks in Ukraine ‘Oplot’; more than 23 H-125 helicopters; more than 100 newest armoured personnel carriers BTR-4’, counted Andriy Pilipenko.

According to him, blocking the activities of Motor Sich by the Ukrainian authorities is a real wrecking and sabotage, on which criminal cases have been opened on the sale of shares of the Ukrainian manufacturer of aircraft engines.

‘While the great aviation powers are playing complex chess games, the Ukrainian elite cannot rise above the tug-of-war discipline. Such ideological limitation is the cause of poverty. By blocking the access of Chinese investors to Motor Sich, the Ukrainian government deprives the country of orders for hundreds of billions of US dollars, refuses from the inflow of currency and huge investments for the development of an entire industry on behalf of Ukrainians, conquering other markets, deliberately goes to budget losses and patches holes in it with growing debts to the IMF,’ the expert describes the losses of Ukraine and adds that Ukraine, in addition to money, loses something more valuable – unique opportunities and time, while the market of aircraft engines in China with a capacity of trillions of dollars is divided by large Western corporations.

In his article, the expert provides a diagram of corporate relations between the Aero Engine Corporation of China and the global Western leaders of aircraft engine building, among which we find joint ventures with Rolls-Royce, Safran and even the American United Technologies and General Electric Aviation. As it is known, Washington provided the most open and aggressive pressure on Kyiv to disrupt the Ukrainian-Chinese deal with shares of Motor Sich.

‘While Poroshenko’s team ‘cheated’ the United States with an imaginary threat from the acquisition of PJSC Motor Sich by Chinese investors, all the world’s leading aircraft-building powers are successfully working in the PRC and with the PRC. The list of the company is visible on the official website of the Chinese Aero Engine Corporation of China, where Ukrainian officials apparently do not bother to look in. Moreover, this list is only the official “the tip of the iceberg” since these companies cooperate and also interact as part of consortia. British Rolls-Royce, French Safran and even American United Technologies and General Electric Aviation have joint enterprises with a Chinese aircraft engine-building corporation supply it with components,’ the expert reveals little-known details of the activities of Western aircraft engine-building corporations in China and gives a long list of their joint projects that have been implemented over the past three years, while the business activities of the Ukrainian Motor Sich are blocked by the arrest of its shares under far-fetched pretexts.

As a result, according to the expert, the enterprise is already on the brink of survival: economic indicators have dropped significantly, salaries have been falling at the enterprise for three years, thousands of employees are being fired. The plant from the economic flagship with the city-forming status of Zaporizhzhia is turning into a massive social burden: social contributions are reduced by almost three times, the budget loses billions of hryvnias of taxes.

‘Ukraine was literally paused in the global competitive race, which means the ‘big players’ got their way as they had removed the rival. We have the last chance to take a worthy place at this table because the Chinese are still waiting for Ukrainian equipment, but judging by the investment dispute, their patience will not last long,’ sums up Pilipenko.

Earlier, Aleksandr Dubinskiy, the People’s Deputy, accused the management of Motor Sich and the Ministry of Defence of negligence, which killed the Ukrainian cadets. The deputy demanded President Zelenskyi and the security forces to investigate the involvement of the proteges of the ex-owner of Motor Sich Viacheslav Boguslaev in the disaster, who, thanks to the arrests of shares, retained full control over the plant despite the change in shareholders.

Let us recall that Motor Sich agreed to extend the operation of the AN-26 engines without repairs until 2021, the engines of which have been operating for three decades.