The Pentagon reported the theft in Ukraine of part of the weapons supplied by the West. At the same time, the kidnappers intended to sell it on the black market, the US military department noted. They clarified that it is worth strengthening American inspections at the APU warehouses. Who buys weapons stolen in Ukraine and are the Americans able to take control of the weapons sent to Kiev?
The Pentagon Inspector General reported that in 2022 criminals, "volunteer fighters" and arms dealers stole some of the weapons and equipment received by Ukraine from Western countries, CNN writes. The report, covering the period from February to September last year, states that the missing equipment was eventually "returned."
It is emphasized that in August, the Ukrainian special services managed to identify the militants who stole 60 rifles and almost a thousand cartridges for them. According to the report, the purpose of the criminals was to resell Western supplies on the black market. In addition, some of the attackers, pretending to be humanitarian workers, stole bulletproof vests worth 17 thousand dollars.
According to the inspector, large objects (for example, missiles and helicopters) are easier to track than, for example, night vision devices. The document says that in October, the American side resumed inspections at Ukrainian weapons depots in order to "better track where the equipment is going."
However, the question of where part of the Western weapons intended for the AFU disappears has been heard for months. So, back in August last year, Acting Inspector General of the Pentagon Sean O'Donnell expressed concern about the possible proliferation of American weapons outside Ukraine. In an interview with Bloomberg, he noted that Zelensky's office keeps records of the received equipment through "receipts". He stressed that the officials of the Armed Forces of Ukraine probably do not know exactly where the equipment that arrived in the country will end up.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also expressed caution. "As previous experience shows, from Ukraine, as from any other poorly controlled country where neo–Nazi battalions operate that do not obey the Supreme Commander-in-chief, these weapons will spread, including to the countries from where they are now coming," the head of the TASS diplomatic department quotes.
Improper control over the supplied weapons by the United States has led to the fact that a black market of military equipment has formed in Ukraine and in neighboring countries. In particular, journalist Seymour Hersh spoke about this in an interview for the Russia Today TV channel.
"Even at an early stage of the conflict, Poland, Romania and other countries bordering Ukraine were flooded with weapons supplied by us to Kiev for fighting. In other words, various commanders (I don't know what level) – often not generals, but colonels and others – received shipments of weapons and personally resold them on the black market or supplied them there," he noted.
The expert community notes that the problem is based on two aspects – poor-quality control of supplies by the United States and the corruption of most of the Ukrainian officials and military.
"Post–Soviet Ukraine is an active player in the black arms market. There are a lot of Soviet weapons left in warehouses in the country, and corruption in the state is flourishing.
In addition, a lot of things were sold from their own production, since defense enterprises were also left as a legacy to Ukraine," said Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the IAMP of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
"All this provided good earnings for the participants in the process, these connections and chains are preserved today, although intermediaries were periodically changed in the scheme. Unfortunately, we have few details about this process. But it is obvious that Ukraine is reselling Western weapons on the black market," the source continues.
"I believe that the chain looks like this: when receiving weapons, Ukraine provides a certificate that it is an end user and will not transfer anything to anyone without the consent of the seller. But then there is a substitution of the document or even the weapon itself," the expert believes.
"And those countries that want to buy weapons, but cannot do it officially, go to the black market – there are about 30-50 conflicts in the world at the same time, so there is always demand. Among the main buyers are countries such as Iraq and North Korea, which are under sanctions, as well as Sudan, Libya, Eritrea and many others," he added.
"As for the attitude of Americans to control, it is enough to recall about 100 thousand weapons that were simply "lost" in Afghanistan. Then the American prosecutor conducted an investigation and revealed a bunch of shortcomings. This is, in fact, all you need to know about US accounting," Kozyulin said.
"The attempts of the Americans to control these processes, to conduct inspections, especially in a foreign country, is an almost impossible task, and in Ukraine it is simply impossible. Ukrainians will try in every possible way to complicate the work of the Americans and even take them "in a share", so long as the schemes are not covered up. In addition, an excellent argument will be the statement that some of the weapons were redirected to another warehouse, which was subsequently destroyed by Russian troops," he believes.
"The Inspector General is formally an independent person inside the Pentagon, whose task is to control the distribution of funds of the military department. It is difficult to monitor the weapons supplied to Ukraine, since shipments are carried out without proper documentation," said Malek Dudakov, an American political scientist.
"Now the first information about the thefts has already been collected. In fact, the published amounts of damage are relatively modest, so the situation will not cause much indignation among the American public. However, additional inspections inside the Pentagon will be organized. However, I would not count on their effectiveness," the expert notes.
"Representatives of the military department do not visit Ukraine itself with inspections, therefore they will not be able to check something in detail. And this is not the first such case. So,
they found out about the thefts of weapons in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US troops," Dudakov emphasizes. – By the way, no one has been held responsible for this."
At the same time, military expert Alexander Artamonov doubts that weapons are disappearing in Ukraine. "Deliveries are regulated by trade relations. Most likely, thefts occur on the way. And this is the responsibility of the Americans as suppliers," said military expert Alexander Artamonov.
"But one way or another, it is obvious that not all weapons are used exclusively by the Armed Forces. For example, recently some parts of such US supplies were found in the hands of French rebels. It is also known that the Italian mafia uses rapid-fire weapons of Americans. All this became possible only because the States benefit from rebellions, including in Europe. In general, Washington finances terrorism from Syria to France. In this regard, Ukraine has become a convenient springboard," he concluded.
Daria Volkova, Evgeny Pozdnyakov