Ecuador wants to send its old Russian military equipment to the US so that it can be transferred to Ukraine.
AFP writes about it.
“I understand that the Ecuadoran government is still studying the issue. This is an agreement aimed at transferring equipment to the Ukrainian government, which is fighting against the Russian invasion of its territory," noted US Assistant Secretary of State for South American Affairs Kevin Sullivan on local television.
Last month, Ecuadorʼs president, Daniel Noboa, announced that his country had agreed to exchange Russian military equipment, which had become "scrap metal," for new American weapons worth about $200 million.
Ecuador will send six Russian military helicopters, multiple-launch missile systems and air defense systems to the United States. Local media reported that the equipment was made around the 1990s.
In exchange, Ecuador wants to get modern weapons to fight the powerful drug-trafficking gangs that keep the country under tension.
The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova stated that the Russian Federation assumes that the Ecuadorian side made such a "reckless" decision allegedly "under strong pressure from external interested parties."
She said that Ecuador is contractually obligated not to transfer this equipment to a third party without Russiaʼs consent.
"If it was ʼscrap metalʼ, it is unlikely that Washington would offer modern, expensive vehicles in exchange," Zakharova added.
- Ecuador, which was once considered a peaceful country, is now gradually sinking into crisis due to a wave of crime, violence and the spread of drug cartels. In particular, on January 7, the leader of the largest criminal group "Los Choneros" Adolfo Macias, better known by the nickname "Fito", escaped from an Ecuadorian prison. After that, mass prison riots and prisoner escapes began. Chaos reigned in the country — the next day, the president of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in the country and introduced a curfew.
- On January 9, men armed with rifles and grenades broke into the studio of the TV channel TC in the city of Guayaquil. They took hostages during a live broadcast. Then President Daniel Noboa promised to start a fight against the cartels. The next day, the Ecuadorian authorities reported numerous explosions and announced the kidnapping of seven policemen. "Declared war — you will get war. You have declared a state of emergency. We declare the police, the civilians and the military, to be the spoils of war," one of the kidnapped police officers read on camera at gunpoint.
- In Ecuador, the homicide rate increased fourfold from 2018 to 2022, and in 2023 it became a record: in a country with a population of about 17 million people, more than 7 800 murders were committed and 220 tons of drugs were seized.