Ecuador is still considering sending its outdated Russian military equipment to Ukraine, according to US Assistant Secretary of State for South American affairs Kevin Sullivan, in a Feb. 8 interview with Ecuadorian TV channel Teleamazonas.
“I understand that the government of Ecuador is still studying this issue. This is an agreement aimed at transferring equipment to the Ukrainian government, which is fighting against a Russian invasion of its territory,” Sullivan said.
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In January, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced that his country had agreed to exchange Russian military equipment that had become “scrap metal” in return for new US weapons worth about $200 million.
According to the president, Ecuador can supply six Russian military helicopters, long-range missile launchers and air defense systems. According to local media, the weapons date back to the 1990s.
In exchange, Ecuador wants state-of-the-art weapons to counter the powerful drug gangs that keep the country on its toes.
"We assume that such a rash decision was made by the Ecuadorian side under strong pressure from external stakeholders," Russian spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week.
She added that under the contract, Ecuadaor’s capital Quito is obliged “not to transfer this equipment to a third party” without the consent of Russia.
“If it was scrap metal, it is unlikely that Washington would offer modern vehicles of significant value in exchange,” Zakharova said.
Russia Suspended Two Airports' Traffic Over Drone Threat
Following this, the Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia’s federal agricultural body) appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture of Ecuador with a request to suspend the purchase of bananas from five Ecuadorian companies from Feb. 5 due to the alleged detection of a dangerous quarantine pest.
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Comments (3)
I suspect for Ecuador and many nations in a similar predicament, this is mostly about reducing reliance on a subset of their various foreign military equipment supplier's whose maintenance capabilities / parts supply chain has taken a big hit. Still in the right hands, as proven by the skilled and innovative Ukrainians, even older USSR era stock military items can still have utility and lethality.
If you look at Ecuador's current military equipment inventory anyways, it's almost entirely already from NATO or EU aligned nations. Of the 21 air vehicle types they currently use only one (Mi-17 model helicopter) is russian. Ukraine forces already use this model.
I say if the 3 allied parties are happy with 'the deal', then why not? Ukraine has the hybrid russian weaponry knowledge and plenty of spare parts to safely extract further value from these older military assets as they await better replacements.
Just the fact that russia is SO upset with this tells me its probably a shrewd move for the 3 allies.
It’s great how russia crys about other people breaking agreements (transferring russian made weapons without russia’s approval, assuming that agreement was ever really )in place here), when they constantly break treaties and agreements that they agree to.
Er Ukraine interesseret i sådant gammelt selvmorderisk udstyr ? bare ingen svar.