OK guys, I don't know much about Maljuk, but what I do know it's not pretty, and this has nothing to do with the gun itself.
Yes, it's an ultimate development if Vepr->Vulkan->Maljuk. The second version was introduced in 2018, it has better materials, new barrel and visually can be distinguished from the 2015 production version by an ambidextrous fire mode selector. Ukrainian Special Forces use both, 7.62x39 and 5.45mm versions.
In the hands of the Special Forces operatives the gun has earned nothing but praise. At the same time, National Guard is sticking with Fort-221 rifle, i.e. locally assembled IWI Tavor. Now, the main problem with the rifle has nothing to do with its qualities, but multiple corruption investigations launched into action of the owners of the parent company. Apparently, the rifle was purchased by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense at a cost of... $3,000 per unit (yes, this figure is in the US dollars). needless to say, this is "unreasonable". very few rifles have actually been officially bought. What you see in the photos are mostly privately purchased one by the former Ukrainian President Poroshenko and paid out of his own pocket (I hope he got a better deal)
At this point in time, unless the corruption will be weeded out and production moved to a factory capable churning this rifle at higher rates, i don't foresee a bright future for this product. Ukraine would be literally better off buying surplus M4s or even some AK version from Bulgaria for example.
