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A Ukrainian platform that shares captured Russian and North Korean military hardware for "destructive testing" and other research has granted access to 376 foreign companies and agencies since its launch, a spokesman for the initiative told RFE/RL on October 14.

Ukraine's Trophylab was announced in June as a "shared space for enemy weapons research" that publishes hands-on analysis of recovered weapons for approved Ukrainian and foreign entities. The level of international interest in the platform has the potential to significantly impact the Kremlin's weapons industry, analysts say.

Anna Harvey, a research fellow with the American Foreign Policy Council, told RFE/RL that, in addition to the platform's stated purpose of helping to develop countermeasures to individual Russian weapons, it is likely some companies using Trophylab will "reverse engineer Russian technology based off of Ukraine's captured samples." Such copycat products, she predicts, could become "direct competitors to Russian manufacturers selling abroad."

Harvey added that foreign entities that may have been exploring potential weapons purchases from Russia could now assess "how these systems actually perform on the battlefield," rather than relying on Russian specifications.

Trophylab holds samples of more than 200 captured items, including Russia's hypersonic Kinzhal missile, a T-90M tank, and North Korea's KN-23 ballistic missile. Those with access can apply to receive hardware for physical testing to the point of "complete destruction," if necessary. Completed research is uploaded to the portal by users, where it is checked for "compliance, uniqueness, and scientific value" before being published for all users of the platform to view.

Soon after its launch, applicants for access to Trophylab were split equally between Ukrainian and foreign entities, but by August the platform had received around 130 applications for access from Ukraine and more than 300 from abroad. Ukraine's Defense Ministry did not say at the time how many applicants were approved for access.

Trophylab's spokesman declined to specify the number of foreign countries currently accessing the research platform, but the organization says at the level of government agencies access is limited to those from a list of 28 countries that have signed security and other agreements with Ukraine.

Militaries have long shared what is known as "weapons technical intelligence" with allies at the state level, including both sides of of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Russia, for its part, has supplied North Korea with captured NATO military hardware used by Ukrainian forces and is reported to have sent advanced Western weapons to Tehran.

But insiders say the democratization represented by Trophylab, in which small startups can use the same research data as defense ministries, is likely to significantly accelerate weapons development in those countries with access to the intelligence.

In a July interview, Gus McLachlan, a retired Australian major general, said, "What TrophyLab does for the first time is makes [captured weapons research] widely available to innovation organisations, technology companies, and the broader defense industry in a way that we haven't seen before."

Fleets of unusual vehicles have been spotted in Minsk in recent days that may be linked to a murky trade deal with Indonesia.

Trucks with a military color scheme and nearly identical to the Belarus-made MAZ-5316 have been seen sporting the logo "HAL" in place of the usual MAZ badge.

The MAZ-5316 is a heavy-duty 4WD truck produced since the early 2000s by the Minsk Automobile Plant. The vehicles are used for civilian and military purposes, including as troop carriers.

Sightings of HAL-branded vehicles first emerged this summer, when dozens of trucks covered with concealing material were spotted in Indonesia. Reports from the Asian country claimed the partially concealed vehicles were part of an order of some 1,500 Belarusian trucks for Indonesia's Defense Ministry.

In May, an Indonesian delegation toured Belarus's MAZ plant as part of a trip to "explore the company's export potential." In July, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Indonesia to meet with the country's president, Prabowo Subianto.

Belarus declared the primary purpose of the July trip to be "issues of bilateral military-technical cooperation" and "the deepening of industrial cooperation between Minsk and Jakarta."

So what is HAL, and why would Belarusian trucks sport the unfamiliar logo?

Belarusian truck manufacturer MAZ is under EU and US sanctions, a status that blocks many countries from dealing with the company. Indonesia has not imposed sanctions against Belarus but faces the risk of secondary penalties for dealing with entities on Western blacklists.

An Indonesian company called PT HAL Teknologi functions as a distributor for supplies of specialized equipment for defense agencies and other entities in the country, but it is unclear if the company has been involved in vehicle imports from Belarus.

Uladzimer Zhyhar from BelPol, an organization of former Belarusian security officials, told RFE/RL's Belarus Service there is a history of sanctioned Belarusian businesses creating new branding to minimize the risk that purchasing countries will be stung for dealing with sanctioned entities.

"Previously, they tried to organize something similar with [Belarusian heavy transport equipment company] BelAZ deliveries to Poland. They sold entire dump truck assemblies without labels, without the country of origin. And then it was all pieced together [in Poland], but the dump trucks were branded as something else," Zhyhar said.

He added that for some militaries, the kinds of hardware produced in Belarus is desirable enough that risky, complex import schemes are deemed worthwhile.

Factories such as MAZ, Zhyhar said, "generally produce a product that, I would say, belongs to previous generations. But this is exactly what some countries need, because the types of weapons that they have require exactly the older, 'quasi-Soviet' models," he said.

In some cases, Zhyhar said, products from sanctioned Belarusian companies have been paid for through bartering to avoid financial services that are closely watched by regulators.

Belarusian state-linked brands order commodities up to the value of the products being exported, resulting in "goods, not money going to Belarus," Zhyhar said.

The National Statistics Committee of Belarus has not published detailed data on foreign trade since 2021, but in 2020 Indonesia purchased 8 unidentified trucks from Belarus at a cost of $56,138 per vehicle.

Recent reports from the Indonesian Statistics Service do not include information on truck deliveries from Belarus, though there is data on small deliveries of parts including brake systems and clutches.

The Minsk Automobile Plant did not response to a query from RFE/RL's Belarus Service on whether MAZ was involved the production of trucks with the HAL logo.

Amos Chapple contributed to this report.