Six people in camouflage uniforms, apparently fighters of the Ukrainian forces, pose for a photo. One has a Czech-made assault rifle, the other has a Serbian-made 40 mm grenade launcher. The photo was shared on Twitter in April by the "War Noir" profile, which deals with this topic.
It is difficult to say when and how the hand-held launcher with a capacity of six grenades, produced by "Prva Petoletka - dedicated" from Trstenik, reached the Ukrainian fighters. But that is just one of a series of weapons of recent Serbian production that are fired by Ukrainians.
The same weapons were seized by the Russians from the Ukrainians in the fighting around Kharkiv in May. At that time, the Ukrainians allegedly used modified 30-millimeter grenades produced in Serbia for drone strikes. And they are more recent. And in March, an unexploded thermobaric mine of 120 millimeters was recorded on the Ukrainian front - produced in "Trajal" in Kruševac in 2020. That so-called vacuum bomb is considered a powerful weapon.
While the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, claims that the state is taking all measures to ensure that lethal weapons are not used to kill "Serbian brothers" - neither Russian nor Ukrainian - there is no longer any dispute that the Ukrainian army is massively using Serbian weapons.
According to the "Financial Times", which Vučić confirmed to a large extent, Serbian weapons weighing almost one billion euros have already ended up with the Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.
Photos from the front prove that it is often about weapons and ammunition of recent date. Yes, therefore, from the factory lines in Serbia, they go to the front through several hands. But how? Through which intermediaries? And is it possible that the state of Serbia does not know that weapons, the export of which is controlled by the Ministry of Defense, will end up in the hands of Ukrainians?
Research by "Vremen" shows that there is a lot of politics in that complicated scheme (see accompanying text) and that the scheme works through dubious intermediaries who shop in Serbia and then sell to the Pentagon and the Ukrainians. There are also Russian oligarchs under sanctions and, of course, Serbian exporters close to the ruling party.
THE AMERICANS ARE ONLY FORWARDING SERBIAN WEAPONS
The United States recently increased its arms imports from Serbia. According to the Serbian Chamber, the majority of imports since last year are "unclassified military goods". But, according to data from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), American importers bought 267 artillery systems, 3200 rockets, and five armored vehicles in Serbia. From "Jugoimport", a state-owned company that trades in weapons, buyers from the USA acquired about sixteen million small-caliber bullets.
"Given that the weapons used by the US military are significantly more sophisticated than those produced in Serbia, it is reasonable to assume that the United States transfers weapons from Serbia to a third party," Katarina Đokić, a researcher at SIPRI, told Vreme.
In April, the Reuters agency published a confidential document from the Pentagon, which lists how European countries provided aid to Ukraine. It specifically states that the Government of Serbia refused to train Ukrainian soldiers, but agreed to supply or had already supplied weapons to Ukraine.
Miloš Vučević, then Minister of Defense and today's Prime Minister, immediately embarked on another damage control mission.
"We have denied those falsehoods more than ten times and here we are, we will do it again. "Someone obviously has the goal of dragging Serbia into that conflict, but we consistently stick to our established policy," he said. "There is always a possibility that some weapon will somehow magically be found on the territory of the conflict, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Serbia. It is a question for those countries that do not respect international norms, contractual clauses of business".
In a recent interview with the "Financial Times", President Aleksandar Vučić also followed this line. He mentioned, by the way, "Americans, Spaniards, Czechs and others" to whom Serbia sells weapons and ammunition, so they - perhaps - pass them on even though they shouldn't. However, few people believe that weapons "magically" go to Ukraine, and that Belgrade has no idea about it.
SERBIA'S GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO THE UKRAINIAN ARMY
One of our sources in Belgrade, close to the authorities and with experience in the defense sector, confirms that contracts for the delivery of weapons contain "end user" provisions. In translation, the weapon would have to be used by the person to whom it was sold, and not passed on.
"But nobody respects such contracts anymore," says this source.
When asked if the authorities in Belgrade are also aware that the weapons they sell, for example, to American private wholesalers end up in Ukraine, this source says: "Everyone knows that's how it goes."
Vučić has repeatedly said how important the arms industry is to him, and presented the current situation in the world as a "golden opportunity" to earn more.
The last detailed official report in Serbia is available for the year 2021, when the dedicated industry earned 1,23 billion dollars from exports. Almost half of that amount is accounted for by American customers. Each of the export shipments must be approved by the state. This is not small money - that year, the total Serbian export of goods amounted to 21,62 billion euros.
But the dedicated industry became an even more generous golden cock only after that year, that is, when the total Russian invasion of Ukraine began. If Serbian officials publish data transparently, it could easily be that the harvest year 2024 ends with a new record. Especially because after more than two years of frontline fighting, Ukraine is hungry for weapons and ammunition in the fight against a stronger enemy.
The Western arms industry is often unhelpful when it comes to calibers for old Soviet weapons. This is where Serbia comes into play and its contribution to Ukrainian defense is not small at all. And that's where Mr. Morales comes into play.
CALL M FOR WEAPONS
It is an open secret that the Pentagon hires private arms dealers to find weapons around the world for the American account and send them where they need to go. One such American rough-and-tumbler is Mark Morales, a military veteran and arms dealer who founded the company in Florida.
This man in his early fifties, with a pointy beard and an extravagant style, already has experience with the Serbian military industry - at the expense of the Pentagon, he shopped around the Balkans and armed the Syrian rebels who have been fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade and, in part, against the jihadists .
It was Morales' companies - "Global Ordnance" and "Global Military Products" - that imported those sixteen million bullets from Serbia last year. During 2020, Morales also bought the Nora B52 self-propelled howitzer, the pride of the Serbian army, from Jugoimport, allegedly for the purposes of testing the US Army.
Morales' companies supply the US military and its allies. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, his companies have signed contracts worth one billion dollars with the Pentagon, and he directly earned another two hundred million dollars in Ukraine. It has a multi-year contract with "Ukroboronprom", an umbrella state company that connects the entire dedicated industry. The "New York Times" writes that Morales' way of working is "murky". He was already caught in bribery in 2010, when he wanted to secure a deal of fifteen million dollars in Gabon.
photo: ap photo...
GET IT WHEREVER IT GOES
The advantage of this merchant, writes "The Times", is that he is very close to the Pentagon. Shells, bullets and armored vehicles for Ukraine, according to the sources of the New York newspaper, are procured wherever they can: Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan...
Although it is difficult to find definitive proof that Morales is immediately transferring weapons from Serbia to Ukraine - you have to put two and two together. There is no doubt that the companies of this shady dealer buy Serbian weapons and have big deals with the Pentagon and Ukraine.
Morales also cooperates with Slobodan Tešić, although he denies it. Tešić, called the "favorite arms dealer" of the Serbian authorities, was under UN sanctions for violating the ban on arms exports to Liberia. Since 2017, he has been on the US blacklist for bribery and human rights violations in the arms trade. But the fact that Tesic is officially on the American blacklist does not mean that he cannot contribute to the American cause in Ukraine.
Last year, Morales imported ammunition from Zenitprom, one of the three companies owned by Tešić's family, but managed by him. Tešić has been conducting business through those companies since he was on the American blacklist. According to the financial reports in the Agency for Economic Registers, these three companies last year exceeded the profit of one hundred million euros on arms exports, while the state-owned "Jugoimport" exported 63,8 million euros.
Morales is far from the only American customer. Shipment data from the Sayari company file, which provides information on risk in global supply chains, show that last year the Chemring Ordnance company also procured parts for weapons, and the US military bought eleven missiles directly from Jugoimport. "Prvi Partizan" also exported to America.
Photo: APARMS AND AMMUNITION AS THE HARDEST CURRENCY TODAY: Ukraine...
A COMPLICATED ROAD TO THE FRONT
Sometimes the road to the Ukrainian front is winding. In February of last year, several media outlets published alleged photos of the reloading of missiles produced in "Krušik" in Valjevo, which were being prepared in Slovakia for sending to Ukraine. Allegedly, it is about 3500 pieces of 122-millimeter projectiles for the "Grad" artillery system - along with howitzers, the most important weapon used by Ukrainians.
The journalists claimed that "Krušik's" rockets were first sold to Turkey through companies connected to Tešić. There, the end-user certificates were then changed so that the missiles went to Slovakia, and then they were sent to the Canadian firm "Global Ordnance Trading Company", which allegedly also belongs to Marco Morales. And Morales, of course, has end-user certificates that say Ukraine.
Aleksandar Milovanović, a former employee of the Security Department at the company "Jugoimport SDPR", told N1 that it was a complex scheme that could not succeed without the notification of the state leadership.
Krusik and the Serbian Ministry of Defense again denied everything. But a year later, this February, the German "Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung" wrote about similar missiles, this time produced by the Serbian company "Edepro".
That modified 122 mm rocket has a range of forty kilometers - twice that of the classic ones. As the Frankfurt paper wrote, unnamed sources in Belgrade boasted that the Ukrainians love those missiles because they can be fired from the "Grad" system, and they have a longer range than the Bulgarian missiles that they normally purchase.
"That is the range by which Ukraine overcomes the enemy. This gives it enormous advantages," an unnamed military expert told the German newspaper.
And "Edepro" tepidly denied that it sells these weapons directly to Russia or Ukraine, which no one even claimed.
"The buyers of those rockets as owners continue to sell them without our knowledge, influence and control in accordance with the arms export licenses issued by the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade of Serbia. Accordingly, after delivery to domestic customers, we are no longer able to find out who the final user of the weapon is," the company said.
The Serbian Ministry of Defense, Jugoimport, and American institutions such as the Pentagon and the International Trade Administration did not respond to the questions of "Vremen".
Photo: D. Banda / Fonet...and Dedicated industry in Serbia
RUSSIANS IN THE GAME
The great war in the east of Europe, which takes lives and voraciously swallows up all the weapons and ammunition that can be found, thus connected Serbian and American arms dealers of the old Soviet type in a scheme of profits and behind-the-scenes games. But the Russians are also in the game.
It sounds bizarre, but it could be that a Russian oligarch - an intimate of Vladimir Putin - is making money from weapons that are then used to shoot at Russians.
Because the Serbian dedicated industry procures materials from Russia. According to Katarina Đokić from SIPRI, "the delivery of weapons and military equipment from Russia" to Serbia has largely stopped. But, when needed, the Serbian dedicated industry procures "wherever it can get".
Perhaps "Jugoimport" imported 113 shipments last year from five Russian state-owned companies that are on the US sanctions list and are all owned by "Rostek" because of increased demand. It is the tenth largest arms exporter in the world, with an annual turnover of around 17 billion dollars.
"Rostek", which also ignored the inquiry of "Vremen", through its branches supplied "Jugoimport" with engines, helicopters, navigation equipment, radars, gas containers and everything else used in the production of weapons.
The Russian company is under attack from Western sanctions because its biggest business is supplying the Russian army. Director Sergej Chemezov has been in office for a long time, since he was appointed by Vladimir Putin in 2007. Chemezov is also on the US sanctions list.
It turns out that war and profit are very cynical categories. While making money and getting work done, the alliances are strange. Or, as Vučić would say, a "golden opportunity" must not be missed.
Politics and weapons
VUCIĆ BUYS AMERICAN GRACE
"Everything and to know" where the Serbian shells are going - that is not his job. This is what Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said in an interview with the "Financial Times". It is one of the rare occasions in which, admittedly for the foreign media, Vučić is not sure if he knows something or if he says that something is not his job. "We have to take care of our people and that's it. That's all I can say. We have friends in both Kyiv and Moscow. These are our Slovenian brothers", said Vučić.
Since coming to power, Vučić has always repeated that dedicated industry is close to his heart and that it is an important branch for the Serbian economy. There were never any moral dilemmas. Thus, Serbia was almost the only country that in recent years sold weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, which were at war over Nagorno-Karabakh. But the arming of Ukraine is a bigger political game. When the Russians attacked, Serbia found itself in the bind of being the only European country (with the exception of Belarus) that did not join any form of sanctions against Moscow.
BIDEN'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT
During the spring of 2022, Vučić endured the "eighth German offensive". Then German Chancellor Scholz and his ministers took turns in Belgrade, and the pressure to impose sanctions on Russia, at least symbolically, seemed unbearable. And yet, everything quieted down. It is an old story that Vučić buys the "support of the West" or at least turning a blind eye to the end of democracy in Serbia, primarily by "giving" Kosovo on a spoon. There are also fabulous subsidies for foreign firms, lucrative infrastructure deals, and more recently, the promise of lithium.
But some would swear that the main reason for the American support for Vučić - which is best demonstrated by the statements of the ambassador Christopher Hill about the elections, which, according to him, are in principle fair - are actually weapons for Ukraine. Tweets of gratitude from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, whom Vučić met several times, were recorded. As well as one sentence in the congratulatory message of US President Joseph Biden on the last meeting, Serbian National Day. There, Biden stated that "the USA also appreciates the support that Serbia provided to Ukraine in the defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"BEHIND THE SCENES, EVERYONE KNOWS"
German journalist Michael Martens mentions Vučić's purchase of American support for grenades as a notorious fact. In the early stages of Vučić's rule, he wrote laudatory about the "reforms" in Serbia, and Vučić addressed him as "my friend Michael".
Vučić managed to "be at the mercy of Washington through the comprehensive delivery of ammunition that reaches Ukraine via targeted detours", writes Martens for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "Of course, Vučić publicly denies this, among other things because of the pro-Russian sentiment in Serbia that his media apparatus has been systematically increasing for years. But behind the scenes, everyone knows", the text adds.
Some connoisseurs of the situation go even further, claiming that weapons are now the hardest possible currency for Ukraine. For the Americans, they say, this is proof that Vučić is not a Russian man and the reason why the armed conflict in Banjska was covered up so quickly, with American help.
DRAG YOURSELF (MORE) DON'T SCARED MOSCOW
Moscow, after the report on the arming of Ukraine, "expressed concern" and asked for explanations, but the matter was treated discreetly and the epilogue is not known to the public. "Moscow tolerates Vučić's moves because the Kremlin wants to preserve the illusion that there is a European country that has not taken an anti-Russian stance," Belgrade journalist and analyst Nikola Miković told "Newsvik". If Vučić does not (yet) have to fear the Russian reaction, he can fear the reaction of his voters, who are mostly pro-Russian, says Miković. "That's why the media in favor of the authorities in Serbia are silent about the reports that Belgrade is arming Ukraine." In a country where at least two parallel realities rule, this is easy. The arming of Ukraine is hardly a topic even in critical media, while it is never in the regime media.
Recently, on the occasion of Chinese President Xi's visit to Belgrade, the Swiss "Noye zircher zeitung" called Vučić a "master of balancing" - because for now he is successful in buying support from all sides. Admittedly, some Western media remind us that artists are balancing on a tightrope and that it is always a dangerous game.
It is clear that Vučić's ideology is to stay in power. For this purpose, the whole schizophrenia - defending Serbia while enabling Kosovo to complete its statehood, howling "traitors" while foreign investors do whatever they want in Serbia, or pro-Russian propaganda from "Hepija" and tabloids while at the same time arms are being sold to Ukraine.
NR
