Volume 1 - Iraq Watch

tion, Ukrainian state and private exporting companiesindependently facilitated the transfer of prohibitedtechnologies and equipment, mainly in the missilefield, to the embargoed Regime.According to IIS memos to the Iraqi Embassy inKiev, Ukraine, was an important political ally forIraq. After the initial business contacts in the mid-1990s, the government of Iraq embarked in a diplomaticexchange with Ukraine in 2001. ISG judgesthat Saddam’s goal with this relationship was to gainaccess to Ukraine’s significant military productionfacilities, including a large portion of the formerSoviet space and rocket industry.• The recovered IIS memos further indicated that theformer MIC Director Huwaysh visited Ukraine in2002 hoping to develop a closer industrial partnership.• By 2001, the commercial exchange between thetwo countries reached $140 million. Captured documentsindicate that Iraq strove to make “sure thatthe Ukrainian share from the oil for food program[got] bigger” to encourage further trade between thetwo countries.ISG has recovered further documentation disclosingrepresentatives from Ukrainian firms visited Iraqto coordinate the supply of prohibited goods fromthe early 1990s until on the onset of OIF. Informationsupplied by an Iraqi scientist indicates that Iraqidelegations visited Ukraine in 1995.• By 1998, the Iraqi Al-Karamah State Establishmenthosted numerous visits from Ukrainian suppliersseeking contracts assisting Iraq with its missileprogram.• Mr. Yuri Orshansky, from the Ukrainian CompanyMontElect, led the Ukrainian visits. Orshansky’srelationship with Iraq began in September 1993when he arrived in Baghdad accompanied by Dr.Yuri Ayzenberg from the Ukrainian firm Khartron,a known company with missile guidance systemdesign capability. Within 2 months, an Iraqi delegationreciprocated the visit to Ukraine.Professor Yuri Orshansky and the MontElectCompanyYuri Orshansky, a professor of electronics and directorof the Ukrainian MontElect Company, was the keyfacilitator between Saddam’s Regime and Ukraine.• He was a member of the Iraqi Ukrainian Committeefor Economic and Trade Cooperation.• In December 2000, he was made an honoraryconsul for Iraq in Kharkov.• For his efforts, Orshansky was awarded 1.5 millionbarrels of oil by Taha Yasin Ramadan. From 1998to 2000, he also received more than 6 million barrelsfrom Saddam via the secret oil voucher system.Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO)estimated that Orshansky earned about $1.85 millionin profi t from these gifts (refer to the KnownOil Recipients, Annex B).Between 1993 and 1995 Orshansky traveled to Iraq atleast six times. During this period, Iraq sent at leastfour delegations to Ukraine.Orshansky continued to visit Iraq in 1998 to 2003and, through his company MontElect, he transferred arange of equipment and materials to the Al-KaramahState Establishment including:• Engines for surface-to-air Volga 20DCY missiles in2001.• 300 liquid fuel motors to be used in al Samud I missiles.• According to a former Iraqi government offi cial,Iraq also signed a contract for Orshansky to designand build a plant to produce tiethylamine (TEA)and xlidene—the two components of TEGA-02 (missilefuel).• While in Ukraine, Orshansky, Ayzenberg, and GeneralNaim (the head of Iraq’s Scud missile guidanceprogram) executed a “protocol” amounting to anoutline of future cooperation between the parties formissile-related technologies.96