The United States offered Colombia it would buy all 20 russian-made Mi-17 helicopters that the Latin American country has in stock for $300 million, the obtained rotorcraft would be handed over to Ukraine. The Americans hoped it would work out just like with Ecuador which agreed to sell its military equipment, later forwarded to Ukraine, in exchange for new helicopters of U.S. manufacture.
Washington was ready to take Mi-17s from Colombia regardless of the actual operational condition of these choppers that, by the way, have already been in service for 27 years. However, the political and military leadership of Colombia refused such an agreement, according to Infodefensa.
Read more: Colombia Refused to Give its Mi-17 to Ukraine, Now Struggles to Repair Them Due to Sanctions on russia
The journalists note that the Colombian political establishment and the military had different motives for saying "no" to the U.S. offer. For example, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is willing to maintain the country's neutral stance toward russia's war against Ukraine, and in his opinion, the potential sale of helicopters that would end up in Kyiv's hands would violate this neutrality.
The motives of the Colombian military turned out to be even more paradoxical. They decided to simply hold on to their Mi-17 as the only type of medium-lift military transport helicopters, for which they say there is no replacement in the foreseeable future. That is despite most of the Mi-17 fleet available in Colombia is inoperable, and Colombians have already decided to decommission all helicopters of this type by 2027.
Infodefensa also reminds the conditions under which Colombia bought russian Mi-17s in the 1990s. In fact, Colombia initially planned to purchase 12 Black Hawk helicopters for $108 million (acc. to exchange rates at the time), the order was submitted in 1995, but the U.S. caused an "unjustified delay" in the delivery of Black Hawks to the Colombians, due to foreign policy considerations.
As a result, the U.S. never delivered the Black Hawk to Colombia, so Bogotá turned its attention to the Mi-17 option. At that time, the russian offer looked promising, particularly thanks to the operating cost per flight hour — $700 for the Mi-17 compared to $1,300 for the American UH-60 at the time. Ultimately, Colombia chose russian rotorcraft.
Notably, nowadays the Colombians refuse to sell to the United States the very helicopters they are struggling to repair because of international sanctions and the so-called "Clinton list" comprising blacklisted contractors connected to the russian federation. Therefore, instead of $300 million and new rotorcraft in exchange for helping Ukraine, Colombia is taking the risk of having just a pile of scrap metal in the next few years.
Read more: U.S. Purchased russian Helicopters Target russians Near Avdiivka (Video)
