Swedish authorities are going to provide Ukraine with another $313 million military aid package to counter Russian full-scale aggression, Western media reported on Tuesday, citing Swedish Defense Minister Paul Johnson.
He said at a press conference that the package would include ammunition and spare parts for Leopard 2 tanks, CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles, Archer self-propelled artillery systems (SAU), as well as landmine clearance equipment and ammunition for air defense systems.
The minister added that the government was counting on a positive outcome of Thursday’s vote in the Swedish parliament to adopt this, already the 13th military aid package for Ukraine.
The mass media recall that the value of the previous tranches of military aid to Kiev amounted to $1.6bn. Sweden sent Archer SAU, at least 10 Stridsvagn main battle tanks, 122 Leopard 2A5 tanks, 50 CV-90 BMPs, RBS 70 man-portable surface-to-air missile systems, NLAW man-portable anti-tank missile systems, a significant number of components for Hawk and Iris-T air defense systems.
In order to prevent the disruption of the sowing campaign in Ukraine due to breakdowns of agricultural equipment, the German manufacturer of agricultural machinery Claas has established an automobile channel for the constant supply of spare parts to the country, the company said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
The company made such a decision on the logistics of spare parts, since air transportation of components to Ukraine is now impossible due to the closed sky due to the war unleashed by Russia.
“Claas, despite the absence of air traffic in Ukraine during this period, has established systemic express deliveries of the necessary spare parts for agricultural machinery. Now a shuttle is running from the central warehouse of Claas spare parts in Hamm (Germany) to Ukraine, bringing urgent orders,” he wrote. manufacturer.
The machine-building company emphasized that due to the military invasion of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, all logistics processes were disrupted, which led to the impossibility of meeting the agreed terms for the supply of spare parts, but the company is doing everything possible to support its customers in Ukraine.
As reported, in mid-March, Claas said it was shocked by the escalation of Russian military aggression in Ukraine, as a result of which it stopped production in the Russian Federation and evacuated all its Ukrainian employees to a safe place.
Claas manufactures self-propelled grain harvesters, self-propelled forage harvesters, tractors, trailers for harvesting green fodder, telescopic loaders, balers, self-loading trailers. The main production facilities are located in Germany and France.
According to its Russian branch, Claas in Russia owns a harvester plant in Krasnodar, which has been operating since 2003.
Its branch LLC “Claas Ukraine” (Kyiv) has been operating in Ukraine since 1992. During this time, he imported over 8 thousand units of self-propelled equipment. In Ukraine, the company operates through a network of representative offices located in all regions of the country.
The regional branch Prydniprovska Railways of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has selected Transportation Ukraine LLC to procure spare parts to U.S. General Electric locomotives for the total amount of UAH 3.12 million.
According to a report in the ProZorro e-procurement system, the deal was signed using negotiations due to the absence of competition among suppliers.
The subject of the deal is eight types of spare parts to General Electric TE33AS locomotives in the amount of 864 units. The term of the delivery is before December 31, 2019.
Transportation Ukraine LLC with a charter capital of UAH 28.1 million was registered in July 2018 in Kyiv. The founder is Transportation Systems Holdings Inc. (the United States). Gokhan Bayhan, GE Transportation’s General Manager for Russia/CIS, Europe, Middle East & North Africa, is the head of the company.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia has completed the first stage of the strategic cooperation with General Electric on supplies of locomotives.
JSC Ukrzaliznytsia has presented a catalog with a list of spare parts that require replacement to potential Ukrainian manufacturers.
According to a posting on the website of the company, thanks to replacement of imported spare parts used in the railway sector, Ukraine’s economy could receive some UAH 1.6 billion and 8,000 additional jobs in 2019.
Ukrzaliznytsia urgently needs replacement of spare parts, first of all, those produced by the Russian Federation. Therefore, we are coming up with a proposal to national manufacturers – to create an alternative to the products of the aggressor country. As an example: in 2019, the company needs 230 positions of these spare parts – this is 575,000 units and UAH 1.6 billion for the Ukrainian economy,” acting Board Chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia Yevhen Kravtsov said.
Now Ukrzaliznytsia is negotiating with the state-run electronic trading platform ProZorro.Sales to provide it with the opportunity of entering into framework agreements with suppliers for a period of three years.
“For domestic enterprises, this is better than one-time orders. Then the owners will be interested to invest in the development of their production facilities and understand the volume of products for the long term,” Kravtsov said.
In addition, next year, Ukrzaliznytsia is ready to further invest UAH 13.5 billion in addition to the level of investment in 2018. This is UAH 8.1 billion in capex and UAH 5.4 billion in current repairs.