In Ukraine, a U.S. Arms Dealer Is Making a Fortune and Testing Limits

The Justice Department indicted him in 2009 on conspiracy and cash laundering costs after it stated he was caught on tape discussing strategies for paying bribes to overseas officers. “You just got to be smarter than the government,” Mr. Morales stated on one recording. (F.B.I. brokers badly botched the case, and prosecutors finally dropped the costs.)

But the warfare modified the calculus for the Ukrainians and Americans alike. The Biden administration, in search of to arm Ukraine however reluctant to commit troops, wants folks like Mr. Morales, who proved in Afghanistan and Syria that he might persistently purchase and ship weapons.

And Ukrainian officers, with nationwide survival at stake, welcomed again native arms sellers whom, earlier than the warfare with Russia, they’d labored exhausting to sideline. Early within the warfare, which started in February 2022, officers scrapped many public procurement and transparency guidelines and invited personal brokers to compete with authorities patrons. Now, after the firing of the protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian officers are publicly questioning this weapons-at-any-cost technique.

Mr. Morales declined to be interviewed. Bryan Van Brunt, the overall counsel for Mr. Morales’s firm, Global Ordnance, stated the corporate adopted the legislation. “Contrary to what we may see in the movies, long-term success depends upon knowing, fully respecting, and following the rules of all countries involved,” he wrote in an e mail.

Sergeant Koyfman, a Ukrainian American with years of expertise as an adviser to Ukraine’s nationwide guard, enlisted when Russia invaded, paperwork reviewed by The New York Times present. His precise army duties are unclear. He advised The Times that he’s a chief sergeant within the Ukrainian territorial protection forces, the place he supervises and trains a cadre of troopers. “We are fighters,” he stated.