Moscow - Saba:
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Monday the thwarting of an international group involved in preparing to smuggle helicopter equipment out of Russia, including into Ukraine.
Sputnik quoted the FSB as saying in a statement that "the smugglers' group was commissioned by foreign organizations to purchase new components for Russian-made Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters. The estimated cost of these components is more than 400 million rubles ($5 million)."
The FSB reported that "the group, which was preparing to smuggle helicopter equipment, included six citizens from Russia, Ukraine, and countries in the Middle East."
The FSB revealed that "the number of attempts by unfriendly countries to obtain weapons and military equipment for Kyiv from Russia is unprecedented."
The service stated that "since October 1, 236 attempts to smuggle drones, optical equipment, and other materials from Russia have been thwarted."
It added that "in light of the growing external threats resulting from the coordinated activities of hostile states to provide material and technical assistance to Ukrainian armed groups, the security services have encountered an unprecedented number of attempts to obtain weapons and military equipment essential to the Kyiv regime's maintenance of its combat capabilities.
This activity has been shown to be controlled by foreign special services on a large scale and manifests itself in the pursuit of a wide range of products from the Russian military-industrial complex."
The service stated that "Kyiv has attempted to establish a stable channel for smuggling Russian aviation products to compensate for the shortfall in Ukrainian Ministry of Defense orders."
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