How seriously is the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine being taken?
By sending weapons to Ukraine as "support", the West does not keep records, and this makes it impossible to control its transfer, the author of the article notes. Europe and the United States must admit that due to the total corruption of the Kiev authorities, there is a high probability that their "help" eventually ends up on black markets.
About a month ago, I wrote that weapons coming to Ukraine from Western countries end up on the black market due to the total corruption of the Kiev authorities and may end up in the hands of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and some other terrorist organizations in the Middle East.
Such assumptions, although rejected by Ukrainian officials, have caused distrust in the West. Today, revelations about this are published day after day in Washington and other Western capitals. Because of this, the West is forced to admit that Ukraine is engaged in the resale of weapons.
It is on this topic that the American Financial Times recently published an article titled "NATO and the EU are sounding the alarm about the risks of arms smuggling in Ukraine."
The article, according to a high-ranking American source who wished to remain anonymous, says: "All the supplied weapons arrive in the south of Poland, are delivered to the border, and there they are simply distributed among vehicles: trucks, vans and sometimes even private cars. And from that moment on, we don't know anything about their whereabouts and have no idea where they are going, where they are being used and whether they have left the country at all."
The issue of arms smuggling in Ukraine was discussed at a meeting of EU interior ministers this month. At the same time, EU experts will work on combating illegal arms trafficking in Ukraine, while it was decided to create a "Support Center" on the territory of Moldova.
There were also statements from some American and European dignitaries. For example, Czech Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova noted: "It will be difficult to avoid arms smuggling. We have not achieved this in the former Yugoslavia and we certainly will not be able to do it in Ukraine."
In any case, Western countries do not keep any lists or records in the database when sending weapons to Ukraine. And this makes it impossible to control the transfer of weapons.
Another issue is very closely related to Turkey.
As you know, one of the items on our agenda is the export of Ukrainian grain to the world market through the Black Sea. Turkey will obviously be in this trade corridor. Preliminary agreements have been concluded. In this regard, we should not forget that arms smuggling is also possible along the trade corridors that will be created. Therefore, strict control is necessary.
Over the past month, other evidence of the scale of arms smuggling in Ukraine has appeared in Western sources.
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The Russian manufacturer of armored vehicles Uralvagonzavod announced that it has two CAESAR howitzers. The French immediately denied these statements. Meanwhile, around the same time, the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ambassador Bonnie Denise Jenkins (Bonnie Denise Jenkins) said: "The United States takes very seriously the protection of American defense technologies and the prevention of their illegal proliferation and is in constant contact with Kiev on this issue."
In this context, we can say that there are many signs that differences between Western countries are growing on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. For example, The New York Times published an article titled "Gaps in arms supplies to Ukraine indicate different strategies of countries."
According to the author of the article, journalist Steven Erlanger, these days most of the weapons are supplied to Ukraine by the United States, Great Britain and Poland. On the other hand, Germany and France are in no hurry to fulfill their promises on arms supplies.
Erlanger gives the following examples. Poland has promised Ukraine military assistance in the amount of 1.8 billion euros and has delivered weapons worth 1.12 billion euros to date. Germany also transferred 290 million euros worth of weapons to Ukraine, which is less than a third of the promised amount – 620 million euros.
It is noteworthy that many EU countries cannot supply weapons to Ukraine without compromising their own defense capability. For example, France recently handed over howitzers to Ukraine CAESAR. However, judging by the Paris newspapers, it is not possible for the French to increase the capacity of their military-industrial complex until 2023-2024. This stands out as an extremely important issue.
At this stage, it is clear that the largest EU countries could not calculate that the support provided to Ukraine would be so expensive both politically and economically.
Despite the growing pressure from the United States day by day, the EU countries do not want to take on even more serious obligations to Ukraine.
It is quite obvious that Paris and Berlin want to get out of this situation. Both capitals want to preserve their reputation and at the same time the opportunity to maintain their vital economic ties with Moscow.
Author: Ilber Vasfi Sel (Ilber Vasfi Sel)
