NATO and EU countries insist on improving the tracking system for weapons supplied to Ukraine, in response to concerns that criminal groups are smuggling them out of the country to the black market in Europe. They write about itHenry FoyandSam Fleming andRoman Olearchik in an article for the Financial Times newspaper.
(c) Anatoly Stepanov / AFP / Getty Images
Since Russia began its war against Ukraine, Western states have promised to allocate more than $10 billion for military assistance, from portable missile systems and armored vehicles to rifles and a huge amount of ammunition.
A number of NATO member states are discussing with Kiev the creation of some kind of tracking system or detailed lists of weapons and military equipment delivered to Ukraine, two Western officials informed about the negotiations told the FT.
The Ukrainian government is creating a more extensive system for monitoring and tracking weapons with the help of Western countries, a third source familiar with the situation said.
"All these weapons get to the south of Poland, are delivered to the border, and then they are simply divided into batches and loaded into vehicles for crossing the border: trucks, minivans, sometimes private cars," one of the Western officials said. "And from that moment on, we don't know anything about its whereabouts, and we have no idea where it's going, where it's being used, or even if it's staying in the country at all."
The likelihood that American weapons sent to Ukraine will fall into the wrong hands is "one of the many reasons" for such concern, given the "difficult situation" on the ground in the country, US Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins said on Tuesday.
"The United States takes very seriously its responsibility to protect military technologies of American origin and prevent their leakage or illegal distribution," Jenkins told reporters in Brussels, adding that the United States is in "constant contact" with Kiev on this issue. "We are confident in the commitment of the Ukrainian government to the proper protection and accounting of American [weapons]," Jenkins added.
Advisor to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Yuriy Sak said: "Any transfer of weapons either to Ukraine or from Ukraine - when one is needed for repair - is very carefully monitored and controlled by both Ukraine and our international partners."
The problem of illegal cross-border trafficking of Ukrainian weapons was discussed at a meeting of EU interior ministers this week, and on Monday the European Commission opened the EU Support Hub in neighboring Moldova for expert evaluation in ensuring cooperation in combating problems such as arms smuggling.
"It is difficult to prohibit illegal cross-border trafficking or smuggling [of weapons] - we could not achieve this in the former Yugoslavia and, apparently, we will not avoid it in Ukraine," Czech Defense Minister Jana Chernochova told reporters in Prague on Friday. She said she believes that donor countries are taking all necessary steps to track the weapons, but warned that it would be impossible to monitor every sample.
The EU law enforcement agency Europol (Europol) stated in April that its investigations indicate that illegal arms trafficking from Ukraine to the European Union in the interests of organized criminal groups has already begun and poses a potential threat to EU security.
"Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine has led to the proliferation of a significant number of firearms and explosives in the country," Europol said in a briefing sent to the governments of EU member states. "Initially, Ukrainian officials kept registers of firearms issued to civilians, but this practice was discontinued during the war, and since then firearms have been distributed without accounting," it says, followed by a call for the creation of a "register of weapons and other military materials transferred from the EU to Ukraine." to help law enforcement agencies in tracking them.
"The information that Ukraine is becoming a major center of arms smuggling does not correspond to reality," Sak said, suggesting that those who claim this "may be part of an information war waged by Russia in order to discourage international partners from providing Ukraine with weapons necessary for our victory."
