Armchair
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Indeed, Ukraine is probably in an even more dubious position than Pakistan when it comes to being able to secure weapons from abroad. Granted, they don't have many active programs, but the R&D + industrial expertise for developing some inputs, e.g. engines, is certainly there to nurture provided there's funding available.
Ukraine needs an air force. They are stuck flying MiG-29s and FLANKERS without a meaningful future. Their planes are now 30 years old. Need to be replaced, but Russia most certainly wouldn't be a source.
At the same time, going for Western weapons would mean essentially surrendering the massive aviation infrastructure they have. So their president had decided that they will build engines for "new" MiG-29 inspired aircraft.
Meanwhile, Motor Sich was taken over by a Chinese company, and they attempted to move out important equipment out of the country. The secret service got involved, and a court ruled that the assets of the Chinese were to be frozen until further notice.
Motor Sich already builds an afterburning turbofan for the Chinese L-15. If they can basically make a new engine, roughly the size of an RD-33 / RD-93, with the benefit of the technologies available today and the kind of output available, they can optimize this core to be more efficient.
Its always less efficient to upgrade an old design. This is because the RD-33 was designed with a specific thrust rating in mind. It was optimized for that. Now, if you put better turbines, and do other such things - like increase the wet thrust by pumping out more fuel in the combustion chamber, you can increase thrust, but from an overall system perspective, your solution will be less than optimal.
You could try to add an extra fan stage, but again, because the petals of the other stages have already been determined, your solution will be less optimal.
If you now take a brand new, clean sheet design, you'd be able to do more. You could add an extra fan stage, and it could make your engine give you better thrust. You could optimize the design from a fluid dynamics perspective, using the new technology - single crystal blades.
Now, since Motor Sich is currently building engines in China in a joint venture, including an afterburning turbofan engine for a Chinese LIFT, and this joint venture is the only major private engine venture in China, it is easily possible that this for profit organization wants a piece of the JF-17 pie. That, in collaboration with PAF they designed an RD-93 substitute. Thus fulfilling both the Ukrainian need and the PAF one - as well as the Chinese domestic requirement.