The Pentagon bought weapons for the Syrian rebels from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia. This is stated in the investigation of the Center for the Study of Corruption and Organized Crime (OCCRP) and the Balkan Association of Investigative Journalists (BIRN).
‘The Pentagon hired an entire army of contractors and subcontractors, from rich military industrial corporations to firms linked to the organized crime. They were used to send to the Syrian rebels, who had long been at war with the Islamic state (prohibited in the Russian Federation), the Soviet model weapons and ammunition worth $ 2.2 billion’, alleges the investigation.
As the journalists found out, the Balkan and East European arms manufacturers, who are already working at full capacity to supply the Syrian war, are not able to meet this demand. Therefore, the US Department of Defense turned to other suppliers from Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine, while reducing the requirements for production standards.
The chain of arms supplies was realized separately from the already closed CIA program for arming rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
According to the investigation, the Pentagon purchases weapons through two channels: through the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) which manages special operations in all types of the US armed forces, and through the Picatinny Arsenal, a military research and production organization in the state of New Jersey.
The weapons are transported from Europe to Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait both by sea and by air. Then, by airplanes or trucks, it is distributed between US allies in the north and south of Syria.
According to the thousands of procurement documents analyzed by the BIRN and OCCRP journalists, by May 2017 (for later periods there are no data), the SOCOM had purchased arms and ammunition from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Poland and Romania, worth $ 238.5 million.
On the whole, according to the estimates of the researchers, the Pentagon intends to spend $ 2.2 billion on its Syrian allies.
Ukraine itself regularly appeals to the United States with requests for lethal weapons. On August 24, the US approved the supply of $ 175 million-worth military equipment for Ukraine. The US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, also promised to expand cooperation with Ukraine in the field of defense.
Ukraine also received out-of-date armaments, including Soviet models, from Lithuania. In 2015-2016, Ukraine received from Lithuania 150 tons of military equipment, including machine guns. This was stated by the Lithuanian Defense Minister, Raimundas Caroblis, in April.