Yuriy Biryukov, ambassador of the NGO "Community Matters":
In early March, I told a meeting that the massive problem with body armor would be a thing of the past in three months. At that meeting, I told a lot more, all based on my own experience in the spring and summer of 2014.
That they will sew tile carriers from raincoats, tarpaulins and other unsuitable materials. And that this is not the way to do things, but rather to buy cordura products with good fittings, albeit expensive.
That they will make slabs out of God knows what, out of springs and rails, without thinking about anti-fragmentation and damper. And that this is not the way to do things, but rather to buy products from specialized certified steel and paste them in Ukraine, albeit at a high cost.
All of this is happening. I am not an oracle or a sage. Just experience. Which, as I had been deluding myself, would not be needed after the procurement was established in 2016. Okay.
The steel was purchased by Petro Poroshenko - 5,500 plates, something like eight million hryvnias... Then Patriot Arsenal did the pasting and testing (we have the certificate in a frame on the wall). And now the volunteers of the NGO "Sprava Hromadas", that is, we, are raising a million hryvnias to pay for the final part of the tile carriers. We have already received the tile carriers made of cordura, with fittings... They have already been delivered to us, but the money is still waiting.
We do not trade. We do not sell. We do not exchange. We receive a letter from their military unit, and we deliver hundreds of them under an acceptance certificate. There are already dozens of such units, and we have already handed over more than 2,000 bulletproof vests. Now the 24th mechanized and 14th radio engineering units are next in line.
In another month, this gap will be closed globally...
PS The situation with helmets is worse. You can't make a helmet in handicraft conditions."