Region: Ukraine arms sold in Sudan

Staff Report

For the Kyiv Post

The United States had satellite imagery that proved Ukraine lied about shipping arms to southern Sudan, according to a U.S. State Department cable released by WikiLeaks.

Arms exports to war-torn Sudan are carefully watched and the country's western Darfur region, the scene of alleged genocide, is under a United Nations embargo.

Sudan is on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which among other things bans arms sales to the country. Southern Sudan is largely autonomous from the north since a 2005 peace agreement ended a 50-year war.

Two Ukrainian arms shipments were made in 2008 to Kenya, but the final destination of the weapons, which included Soviet-era tanks and other weapons, was the government in southern Sudan, according to the cable, published Dec. 8.

The account of meetings between Vann H. Van Diepen, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, and senior Ukrainian officials in November 2009 also detail how American diplomats raised concerns that Ukraine intended to sell missile systems to Saudi Arabia capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction; continued to exports parts, albeit in reduced quantities and not completed weapons, to the military dictatorship in Myanmar; and was not intervening in the sale by Ukrainian companies of specialty metals for Iran's ballistic missiles.

Kyiv's export of arms made headlines when the MV Faina, a boat carrying a shipment of 33 Ukrainian T-72 tanks, as well as grenade launchers, armored vehicles and small arms, was captured by Somali pirates in September 2008 en route to Kenya.

According to the account of the meeting in the cable, Ukraine claimed the weapons onboard this and an earlier shipment were destined for Kenya, but Van Diepen produced a copy of a contract that showed the arms were destined for southern Sudan.

The Ukrainian side "held to this line, questioned the authenticity of the contract and asked if the U.S. had any better evidence," whereupon Van Diepen "showed the Ukrainians satellite imagery of T-72 tanks unloaded in Kenya, transferred to railyards for onward shipment, and finally [arriving] in south Sudan."

"This led to a commotion on the Ukrainian side," the author of the cable noted laconically. Ukrainian officials claimed they couldn't be held responsible for the actions of Kenya.

Van Diepen reminded the Ukrainians that Sudan was on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and rebuked the Ukrainian side for lying. He added that the United States "would have to consider whether to impose sanctions for the tank transfer, and that a factor in U.S. deliberations would be whether the [government of Ukraine] was being truthful."

Speaking to the daily newspaper Kommersant, Serhiy Bondarchuk, the former head of Ukrspetsexport, a state-owned company specializing in weapons trade, who was present at the meeting, confirmed the conversation took place.

Bondarchuk noted, however, that Ukrainian officials requested their counterparts provide them with the satellite images to confirm their authenticity, which the U.S. side refused to do.

The authors can be reached at news@kyivpost.com