MOSCOW: Russian military expert, Konstantin Sivkov, has accused the Czech Republic of violating international law by sending tanks belonging to Morocco to Ukraine without the consent of Rabat.
The tanks, which Morocco had purchased from Belarus, were sent to the Czech Republic for repairs and modernization but were transferred to Ukraine by the Czech authorities. Sivkov described this action as “a blatant act of state crime, if not an act of state terrorism.”
Morocco had purchased 148 T-72B tanks in 1999 and 2000 and had sent 130 to a Czech company for modernization in the past two years. Less than half of these tanks have been returned, and around 20 of the 74 that remained in the Czech Republic were handed over to Ukraine by the Czech authorities in violation of contractual agreements.
Sivkov accused the Czech Republic of repeating the sad experience of the Second World War, when Czech enterprises had supplied weapons to Nazi Germany.
He said that Czech authorities have turned their country into a platform for the modernization and repair of equipment sent to Ukraine and suggested such actions confirm the main goal of Kyiv’s Western allies is to prolong the Ukraine conflict as long as possible to cause maximum damage to Russia.
Morocco’s tanks in Ukraine
Some African-related news organizations have reported that it was Czech and not Moroccan authorities that had transferred tanks to Ukraine, in violation of the terms of the contract between the countries.
The transfer of these tanks confirms that Kyiv’s Western patrons have already exhausted their capabilities to arm the Ukrainian army with modern weapons, said Sivkov. As for the T-72B tanks, these are combat vehicles of the mid-1980s and will not give Ukraine any advantage on the battlefield.
Maria Zakharova, the director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also condemned the transfer of the tanks, calling it an egregious case of the Czech Republic violating basic norms of international law regulating the arms trade, and seizing another’s property.
