Without southeast Ukraine, Russia will lose its armed forces - experts
Moscow – Kyiv, May 15 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) – The Russian defense industry is so dependent on Ukraine that the task set by Putin for import substitution in the military-industrial sector in the coming years is simply impossible, according to experts interviewed by RBC. Moreover, they consider the very fact of the call for import substitution to be the main sign that Russia has retreated from the southeast.
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“This is not even a dependence, it is a single organism called the military-industrial complex of the USSR, which they now want to divide,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
According to a study published in April of this year by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), “30% of imported Ukrainian products are key components for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) SS-18 (RS-20 Voevoda.” ), which was developed and produced by the Ukrainian company Yuzhmash.
“The guidance systems of other ICBMs SS-25 Topol and SS-19 were developed and produced in Kharkov. In addition, about 20% of natural uranium used in the Russian civil and military nuclear industry comes from the Zhelty Vody facility in the Dnepropetrovsk region,” the study says.
Since Soviet times, gas turbines and gearboxes produced in Nikolaev have been installed on military and civilian ships. Russia still needs 60% of Ukrainian-made gearboxes for installation on surface combat ships.
In addition, braking parachutes and hydraulic systems are produced in Ukraine for Su-27, Su-30 and Su-35 fighters; the production of the latest Su-34 front-line bombers also depends on Ukrainian components. Motor Sich produces jet engines for various types of Russian transport aircraft, including the An-124 Ruslan, as well as for Russian combat and transport helicopters.
The Russian military saw Putin’s call for import substitution as evidence that Russia will not fight with Ukraine.
“Western and Ukrainian politicians shout every day that Russia will send troops to the southeast of Ukraine any day now, and subsequently annex the regions located there. The question is, why then would our president replace Ukrainian products with domestic ones if he was going to conquer the southeast of Ukraine, including Ukrainian defense enterprises?” said an RBC source in the Ministry of Defense.
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