Luxembourg buys weapons for Ukraine

Luxembourg has created a unit for the purchase of weapons for Ukraine.

The Minister of Defense of Luxembourg François Bausch told The New York Times about this.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Luxembourg set up a two-man team of in-house arms dealers.

Their task is to scour commercial weapons markets in Europe and the United States.

Luxembourg wanted to demonstrate that their country’s commitment to defeating Russia was as big as that of its much larger NATO partners.

“We are so small, and we have no large army, and therefore limited stocks, and from the beginning we wanted to help Ukraine,” Luxembourg’s defense minister, François Bausch.

After all, Luxembourg has the full right to buy weapons on international markets.

“We are flexible, and so we can go and buy on the market what they need and deliver it directly to them,” François Bausch added.

Therefore, two specialists from Luxembourg found a manufacturer of ammunition for BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers in the Czech Republic.

However, grappling with high demand for Grads after the war began, the Czech manufacturer ran out of parts. And to make things worse, most of the company’s suppliers were located in Russia or countries that refused to export equipment which could be used to help Ukraine.

In the end, Luxembourg received 600 BM-21 Grad missiles for Ukraine, which was one-tenth of the original target.

Yet not all of the country’s deals have gone south. According to Bausch, they have managed to deliver or conclude contracts for approximately $94 million in weapons and other military assistance for Ukraine from manufacturers in Britain, France, Poland and the Netherlands.