The Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NATO weapons for sale to Hezbollah

Kotsnews forwarded from Komsomolskaya Pravda: KP.RU The Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NATO weapons for sale to Hezbollah Recall that the

Ukrainian An-12 of the Meridian airline crashed on the evening of July 16 after a fire that broke out in the engine. According to the official, there were approximately 12 tons of “probably dangerous” cargo on board.

But no signs of remnants of chemical weapons or nuclear materials could be found. The An-12 was not carrying weapons of mass destruction, but not training mines, as official authorities said, but a completely different cargo.

According to information published in the well-informed Telegram channel NEZYGAR, the plane was transporting weapons that Ukraine resold from its stocks received from Western countries (stingers, javelins, AKs with ammunition, etc.) to the military wing of the Middle East Hezbollah through the Serbian organized crime group, by a long route through Syria and Jordan (to elude the attention of the Russian Aerospace Forces). The value of the contract is 9 million US dollars, of which 3 million have already been transferred as an advance to accounts in the UAE.

As NEZYGAR writes, the CIA shared information about the flight with weapons for Hezbollah with the Mossad. And then it was already a matter of technology for one of the most formidable special services of our time ...

It turns out that, firstly, Ukraine resells weapons to NATO, and secondly, the CIA has access to the deepest secrets of Ukrainian intelligence, including about these resales. It is possible that the United States themselves have a share in this, writes our journalist Alexander Grishin

July 18, 2022 3:40 am Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NATO weapons for sale to Hezbollah

The crash of the An-12 suggests that Kyiv is not only selling weapons that the West supplies to it, but also clearly sharing profits with agents from the United States

With the Ukrainian An-12 transporter that crashed a couple of days ago in Greece, things may not be so simple. Although Serbian officials have stated that Belgrade has not been supplying any weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for several years, and the plane’s route ran from this Balkan country to Jordan, the Ukrainian trace in this whole story could be very significant. Like the trace of a couple of special services of the countries of the “Western world”.

UKRAINIAN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE PROVIDES… Recall, the An-12 cargo plane of the Ukrainian airline “Meridian” crashed on the evening of July 16 in Greece, about 12 kilometers from the small town of Kavala. According to the official, there were approximately 12 tons of “probably dangerous” cargo on board. In any case, the Greek rescuers who arrived at the scene were at first not allowed to carry out work, limiting their presence to at least a kilometer to the nearest flaming hearths, due to the secondary detonation of the cargo residues, and after the secondary detonation they were dressed in airtight just in case suits. What terrified both the locals and the world press. But no signs of remnants of chemical weapons or nuclear materials could be found. Which is not surprising, since the An-12 was not carrying weapons of mass destruction, but not training mines, as the authorities said,

According to information published by the well -informed NEZYGAR Telegram channel , the plane was carrying weapons that Ukraine resold from its stocks received from Western countries.

“More than a hundred Nlow ATGMs, 55 Stingers and about a hundred more Javelin ATGMs, as well as 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles and BKs for them,” NEZYGAR said. According to him, all these weapons were sold on June 28 by a representative of the military intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) on the direct order of the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, to the military wing of the Middle East Hezbollah. The deal went through a Serbian organized crime group, which specializes in weapons smuggling. The cost of the contract, including the goods themselves, their transportation and commissions to Serbian smugglers, amounted to 9 million US dollars, of which 3 million were already transferred as an advance to accounts in the UAE.

Why such a route, why left hand right ear? Why was it necessary to smuggle the entire consignment first to Serbia by ground smuggling, and then fly from Serbia to Jordan, so that Hezbollah representatives there could pick up the purchased weapons and smuggle them to Palestine through their smuggling corridors? Wouldn’t it have been easier for Ukraine’s military intelligence to load the aircraft somewhere in their own country, where they can ensure complete confidentiality and guarantee the absence of interest and potential third-party observers? The answer is simple. Ukrainian planes cannot now fly over the territory of Ukraine due to a special operation carried out by Russia, and, accordingly, every takeoff, even from an airfield in western Ukraine, is monitored by Russian Aerospace Forces in real time. But just a plane of a Ukrainian company, if it flies not to Ukraine, no one is particularly interested. Airlines from Ukraine now fly all over the world, except for their home country - because of the above reasons, trying to make money on anything.

LONG ARMS OF “MOSSAD”? But what appeared to be the strength of the deal turned out to be its main weakness. According to the Telegram channel, Biden’s current visit to Israel played a fatal role for the An-12 pilots and those behind the deal. His team concluded a strategic cooperation agreement between the American CIA and the Israeli Mossad. And, most likely, it was after this (or for this) that the Americans, according to NEZYGAR, shared information about this delivery with the Israelis. Well, then it was already a matter of technology for one of the most formidable intelligence services of our time, one of the main specializations of which is precisely the fight against Hezbollah.

If this is so, then the Israelis, of course, are a little underdeveloped. It would be better for all participants in the transaction and the action if the plane simply disappeared over the Aegean Sea, over which it was flying at the time of a malfunction (fire) in the engine. But the crew really wanted to live and they almost managed to save themselves and the plane itself. And now, after the “black boxes” have been found, the public and the media will demand disclosure of information, investigations, etc.

The first is that Ukraine resells the weapons it receives from NATO on an industrial scale. Air flights.

And the second - if American intelligence shared such information with the Mossad, then Budanov’s entourage is simply stuffed with CIA employees or agents who have access to the deepest secrets of Ukrainian intelligence and the Ukrainian president’s team. And this means that US agencies have all the information on the arms trade carried out on a wholesale scale by the Ukrainian military. By the way, it is possible that with the sanction or blessing of the American special services and with the direct participation of representatives of these special services. Maybe for a “small share” and personally for himself a gesheft, maybe “in the interests of the state.” Moreover, similar stories have already been in the history of the United States. We can recall, for example, the scandal with the Iran-Contra deal. She left the “black zone” after how in October 1986 an American military transport C-123 was shot down in the sky over Nicaragua. The US Secretary of Defense, one admiral and the US Deputy Secretary of State were even involved in that scandal, who was even convicted for this combination, but was pardoned by President Bush. As for the CIA, there were simply dozens of Agency agents involved in the program.

New York
The Sun

https://www.nysun.com/article/was-ukrainian-cargo-plane-that-crashed-in-greece-carrying-weapons-for-hezbollah

ANTHONY GRANT

Monday, July 18, 2022

03:37:16 pm

ATHENS — The crash-landing in northern Greece of a Soviet-made cargo plane manned by a Ukrainian crew has touched off a diplomatic firestorm in Athens. It has raised the specter that some NATO arms meant to shore up Ukraine in its war against Russia may instead be going to bad actors in the Middle East.

All eight crew members died when the Antonov An-12 plane, a four-engine turboprop transport aircraft, veered off course after taking off from Serbia and crashed into a field about 25 mile west of Greece’s Kavala International Airport. The AP reported that minutes before, the pilot had told air traffic controllers he had a problem with one engine and he had to make an emergency landing, officials said.

Locals close to the crash site reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions for two hours after the crash. Also, “because of a strong smell emanating from the crash site” that the Greek press said authorities feared could be toxic, area residents were only allowed to leave their homes Sunday, the day after the incident.

The Greek army’s Special Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Unit was called in and on Sunday cleared two paths for fire service forensics experts to inspect the site. As of Monday, officials were warning locals that their fields may not be safe to work in because of the likely presence of explosives.

Had the cargo plane, which according to the BBC was loaded with mortar ammunition as well as landmines, crashed at Kavala itself, the consequences would have been catastrophic. A Greek official who refused to be identified told the leading newspaper Kathimerini on Monday: “The Greek ambassador in Belgrade has been instructed to make a complaint to the Serbian [government] to stress the need for Greek authorities to be notified in advance about the nature of the cargo.”

Late on Monday, another major newspaper, Ta Nea, reported that a high-ranking official from the Greek foreign ministry made a similar complaint to Ukraine’s ambassador to Greece.

Serbia’s defense minister, Nebojša Stefanovic, said initially that the plane was transporting almost 11 tons of Serbian-made weapons to Bangladesh, including mortar mines and training mines, the AP reported, but according to the BBC, “there are conflicting reports of what kinds of weapons were on board.” There are also conflicting accounts as to where the weapons were headed. The plane took off from the Serbian city of Nis and according to Ta Nea and multiple reports, had been due to make stopovers in Amman, Jordan, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before ostensibly continuing to Dhaka.

Yet as the smoke clears, the plot thickens. While diplomatic sources in Greece are hardwired for discretion, the Greek public has been riveted by the incident and few are convinced that Serbia was really selling weapons to distant Bangladesh. Ta Nea noted that Kavala is near the port of Alexandroupolis, which it correctly asserts “plays a vital role in the US military presence in this country.” Fueling the intrigue is that the plane belonged to the Ukrainian company Meridian, which according to its website is “one of the first private airlines in Ukraine” and “closely cooperates with the UN and NATO on the delivery of urgent cargo, including military and dual-use cargo.”

Sources close to the Kremlin are sure that weapons on board the plane were destined for an Iranian-backed terrorist-group based in Lebanon, Hezbollah. One newspaper in particular, Komsomolskaya Pravda, put it bluntly: “Ukrainian plane that crashed in Greece was carrying NLAW weapons for sale to Hezbollah.” If that sounds implausible, it is noteworthy that the newspaper, which is seen as friendly to President Putin, cites a cryptic but separate Telegram channel called Nezygar that claims that “more than a hundred NLAW anti-tank weapons, 55 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and about a hundred Javelin high-explosive anti-tank weapons” were among the cargo that went up in flames.

According to that remarkably detailed post, the cache was sold by a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence division to the military wing of Hezbollah and the deal, amounting to the equivalent of $9 million, “went through a Serbian organized crime group which specializes in weapons smuggling.”

Regardless of whether there is a germ of verity to the Russian claim, it is true that Ukraine is awash with weaponry and Russia has warned on prior occasions that some of the weapons that Washington and London are openly furnishing could actually end up in the Middle East. As the European Union has repeatedly pointed out, Ukraine is as much wracked by corruption as it is ravaged by war. As the Sun reported earlier, President Zelensky has fired the head of the county’s domestic security agency and the state prosecutor general, citing some 651 cases of alleged treason and collaboration with Russia.

Russian infiltration may be a colossal headache for Mr. Zelensky, particularly as Mr. Putin presses his bet that he can vanquish Ukraine and steps up offensives in the south and east to see his brutal project through, but it likely had no role in the mystery of the weapons-laden Antonov that crashed in Greece. It’s not clear where the original bill of lading is — it may be up in smoke.

There is no denying that Greece, a key member of NATO, is angry despite its outward appearances of measured alarm. If in the weeks to come it emerges that there was any degree of Ukrainian connivance in porting the cargo to verboten quarters, or if it was illicit, the fatal crash could well undercut NATO’s provisioning of weapons to Ukraine at a moment when the country is, by all accounts, in the most dire need of them.

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