He made a long journey to manufacturer’s facilities to take spare parts to the KrAZ-5233 trucks KrAZ workers made at the request of battalion commander as charity support for their defenders. ”Vehicles are operated in harsh conditions, said the army man, they need timely maintenance and rebuilding after hard days work to get them fully operational. But we have nothing for that. We regularly initiate requests to high commanders but we get neither answers nor spare parts. We thank KrAZ plant for prompt response and most significantly required spare parts.”
The soldier has taken interest in new military vehicles in the yard or research and development workshop. He said time and time again with unabashed delight: “Would be great if we could have these vehicles!! We envy to National Guard servicemen: they have Spartans, Cougars, Shreks and your military three-axle vehicles. And we have almost no new vehicles. Late last year we got four KrAZ-5233 trucks, we dubbed them little dragons. Before we get on with jalopy ZIL, KamAZ and MAZ vehicles and a pair of rattletraps of soviet period. Are these vehicles? – ZILs are half-ruined, we repair them a hundred times, MAZ and KamAZ vehicles break all the time, even drivers are not assigned to them. Al they can do is carrying tires, wood and only on even roads and a short distance away.
New KrAZ vehicles are fast and powerful, they can drive over fields, bumpy roads, when it rains or snows, they will not fail. We thank you for your vehicles, work and we will have new vehicles, we will drive away enemy quickly. We take good care of new KrAZ vehicles, our drivers, trained professionals, handle them as if they were their wives. We use them to carry food products, ammunition, personnel to scene of firings, combat mission, they have to carry howitzers when Ural vehicles are broken. We’d like to have more such dragons, the soldier points to the КrAZ-6322 platform trucks and the KrAZ-6138 cabover vehicle. The other vehicles wouldn’t go amiss, but who will give them to us? I wish we get rid of this old stuff and replace it with new KrAZ vehicles, that would be great. People pay war tax, these money should be used to buy spare parts and equipment, then we wouldn’t have to beg from door to door.”
By the way, war tax paid by “AutoKrAZ” within 2015-2016 amounted to almost UAH 5m. Moreover, the company repaired vehicles damaged in explosion in action area at its own expense, spending much more than 1m. What is more, spare parts purchased by the Ministry of Defence within the abovementioned period account for 0,15 and 0,16 percent of annual sales respectively. While exported spare parts shipped with vehicles under foreign trade contracts account for 79 percent in 2015-м and 86,4 percent in 2016.
KrAZ together with other Ukrainian patriots helped and will help our defenders. Domestic manufacturer hopes for the country’s support in form of public contracts that will reestablish peace in the country and boost the economy.
