Today, when one of the most sought-after things in a pandemic-affected world is medical ventilators, Ukraine could well be able to not only fully satisfy the need of its own hospitals for this equipment, but also make good money on its exports. Well, or to provide disinterested assistance to any of the countries in special need. Alas, in reality it is impossible: Kiev factory Burevestnik, which specialized in the production of ventilators, is in fact completely destroyed.
As a matter of fact, the company received its name by the name developed and put into operation by its specialists in 2002 year of improved modification of the radar station MR-244 "Screen", four years later, successfully adopted by the country's border service. The factory was established in 1967 in the framework of the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union and before the period of “non-fallow”, he was known only in an extremely narrow circle of specialists of the corresponding profile as a manufacturer of complex radar surveillance systems for the navy.
After 1991 years he was ranked among enterprises, of strategic importance to the security of the country and its economy. Nevertheless, since Ukraine didn’t work very well with the fleet in Ukraine, which separated from the USSR, factory workers had to develop a wide range of civilian products. Need to mark, that these things were very technological and extremely popular. In addition to the already mentioned ventilation machines, the company launched the production of other equipment for hospitals and ambulances, sterilizers for surgical instruments, energy-saving systems for managing passenger elevators and other extremely useful things in the national economy.
The work on radio-electronic stations for marine surveillance did not stop. TO 2008 in the year their latest version was ready - "Petrel-3". However save the plant, came in its degradation to the release of machines for counting bills, VHF receivers and even door hinges, it couldn’t save. The destructive processes that began in the country after the first Maidan did not leave any chances for this.. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has concluded a contract for the supply of Petrel 3 and a half thousand ventilators. They promised to calculate according to the results. However, the result was a bankruptcy of the plant ...
Company, getting a loan, made a thousand ordered devices, and the Ministry of Health paid in just 300. The rest of the factory workers handed out to hospitals for free. Nobody appreciated such a wide gesture.: neither state, nor lenders. AT 2011 year enterprise (rather, his remains) was included in the Ukroboronprom concern, but orders, and, respectively, it didn’t add money to him. All production facilities remained in a “frozen” state, the equipment was slowly pulled away and deteriorated, neglected workshops were destroyed and turned into landfills.
Come in 2015 in the year with the intention of “restoring” it, representatives of the “post-Maidan” authorities quickly understood, what to do is already impossible. Despite, that the enterprise continues to be a sensitive facility, related to the nomenclature of the military-industrial complex, bedlam is going on there. Last of the fires, finally destroyed one of the abandoned workshops, happened at the Petrel 22 March this year.
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Today, the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko openly declares, that in the city hospitals there are still "a few" ventilators manufactured by Burevestnik, what is called, breathable. Work enterprise today, for a month, it could provide Ukrainian doctors with at least a hundred of such valuable pieces of equipment, also costing much less than the French counterparts purchased by Ukraine now. However, you should not even dream about it.. Furthermore, the city mayor frankly admits that, that "Ukroboronprom" is ready to transfer the technical documentation for the devices to any private manufacturer - it is impossible to establish their production at any state enterprise in Ukraine today. Everything is ruined to the ground.
Klitschko promises in case, if there are enthusiasts, “Be sure to pay for all released equipment”. but, remembering the sad experience of the "Petrel", the final collapse of which came precisely because of the belief in exactly the same promises, hardly anyone dares to repeat his fate. Well, this situation serves as further evidence of, what is easy to destroy, but it is impossible to recover what was lost sometimes.
Alexander Haraluzhny
