I’m a small arms nerd. I love examining the weapons used in warfare at the infantry level. What surprises me is when something bizarre and odd pops up in combat. In the war in Ukraine, several weird and interesting guns have been used by the Ukrainian forces. One of the more interesting I’ve seen is the Agram 2000.
How many Agram 2000s are being used in the war isn’t known. But during the Battle of Kyiv, a photograph of Territorial Defense Forces members surfaced, and one of them is seen wielding the unusual weapon.
The Agram 2000 is odd to see for numerous reasons.
First and foremost, it’s a 9mm submachine gun. In modern warfare, submachine guns aren’t popular, since at best, they only offer an effective range of 100 yards, and only fire a pistol cartridge. Pistol cartridges run out of steam quickly and don’t offer the same power as a rifle cartridge. With the mass adoption of short and light carbines, submachine guns have gradually disappeared from the battlefield.
Yet, the main reason the Agram 2000 is such an odd gun to see in the battlefield is that its production has always been limited – and the weapon was almost exclusively sold to Europe’s criminal underworld.
Shady origins
The Agram 2000 comes out of Croatia. It’s a compact 9mm submachine gun that was originally developed for the Croatian Army. During the Croatian War of Independence, there was a need for domestically produced SMGs. A man named Ivan Vugrek answered the call, designing a simple, compact gun.
Vugrek submitted the gun for trials, but it was never adopted by the Croatian military. According to the limited information we have, it wasn’t found to be a reliable weapon.
The Croatian military might not have adopted the gun, but that didn’t stop Vugrek from moving ahead with production. He built the guns in a home workshop, and without a military order, he only had one group to sell to: criminals.
The guns popped up in Kosovo during the Kosovo War, being used by the Kosovo Liberation Army. They also began showing up at crime scenes, linked to numerous murders across Europe. Since Ivan Vugrek was connected to the gun, he was investigated, arrested, and convicted.
The Agram 2000 covered a lot of ground, and there is no way to know how many were produced and sold.
Breaking down the weapon
The Agram 2000 is a closed-bolt, selective-fire submachine gun that uses a simple, direct-blowback principle – pretty standard for submachine guns. It uses parts borrowed from guns like the Beretta M12 and the TEC-9.
However, what makes the weapon’s design interesting is that the barrel can vent gas to take a 9mm round from supersonic to subsonic. Slowing down the round to subsonic speeds ensures better suppression when the Agram is paired with a silencer. If you’re not using a suppressor, you can install a guard to prevent the venting and keep the cartridge supersonic.
Guns like the HK MP5SD used a similar venting technology, but as far as I know, these weapons don’t have a way to close the vents to maintain supersonic speeds.
The gun’s overall design is also unique. The Agram wasn’t designed for a stock, so its range is limited and control in full-auto fire is compromised. To provide a little more control, it uses a round, thumbhole-shaped forward grip which also gives the weapon a striking look.
The downside of the Agram 2000 is its magazine: it uses proprietary magazines which can have reliability issues. Ask any gun maker, and they’ll tell you that crafting a reliable magazine tends to be the hard part of a weapon’s design.
There remains the question of how one of these weapons ended up in the Battle of Kyiv.
The most logical explanation is that the weapon was confiscated by the Ukrainian forces. As Russians troops were closing in on Kyiv, the Ukrainians needed guns and likely pressed anything they could find into service.
The Agram 2000 would be far from my first choice for an issued gun, but when the armory’s limited, you use what you can until something else better pops up. As much as I’d love to hear about the gun’s use in the battlefield, I hope the soldier carrying it got to swap to something a little better.
Feature Image: Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces troops during the Battle of Kyiv, 2022. The soldier wielding the Agram 2000 is seventh from the left on the back row. (War Noir ox X)
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