Russian media reported on February 9 that Ukraine’s military industrial complex is on the verge of ruin because Ukraine’s leadership has chosen to end cooperation with the Russian Federation in this area. This conclusion was seemingly arrived at by International Monetary Fund experts.
RIA Novosti, Ukraina.ru, EurAsia Daily, Ria Novosti Ukraina, Vsia Pravda and many others carried this fake story.
In the February 8 IMF Technical Assistance Report available in English and in Ukrainian there is no mention of a failing Ukrainian military industrial complex resulting from termination of military agreements with Russia, The media distorted the report, completely omitting parts of the official document.
The fake stories used this quote:
“Additional losses could result from the effects of military operations in the coal mining regions, the stoppage of coal transports, the depletion of reserves (Ukrainian regulator estimates a loss of $800 million) and the termination of contracts with Russian clients in the military and aerospace industry (80% or 2 billion hryvnia per year)”.
This is what the actual text in the IMF report reads (page 31 footnote):
“Additional losses could stem from war-affected collapse in mining production, cargo traffic and rolling stock depletion (estimated at USD 800 million by the supervising ministry), and contract cancellation by Russian clients in the space and military industry (potentially 80 percent of revenue for companies managed by the State Space Agency or UAH 2 billion per year).
The IMF report refers to 80% of potential losses only in the aerospace industry, the sector overseen by the State Space Agency, and not the entire military-industrial complex. The State Space Agency is the central executive body that coordinates more than 20 enterprises, institutions and organizations.
Ukraine’s military-industrial complex is a conglomerate of public and private enterprises, research institutes and organizations that supply Ukraine’s military needs. The largest state company Ukroboronprom, was established in 2011 and consists of 99 separate enterprises. Ukraine’s State Space Agency is not part of Ukroboronprom. According to Ukroboronprom’s last financial report, in 2015 the company earned more than 1.6 billion UAH.
