Missiles, submachine guns, automatic rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, drones: Western weapons continue to flow into Ukraine, five months after the start of the Russian invasion. And although these weapons are essential to allow Ukraine to fight against the invader, they could end up in the hands of criminals once the war is over.
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Interpol, Europol, Frontex and the European Union: in recent weeks, several organizations have indeed expressed their fears of seeing the weapons delivered to Ukraine feed the black market.
“There is a very significant risk linked to the proliferation of weapons in Ukraine at the moment, particularly with regard to light and small caliber firearms”, underlined in May Nils Duquet, director of the Flemish Peace Institute, a organization that specializes in the acquisition of illegal weapons by terrorist networks in Europe.
“It is very difficult to properly control access to these weapons, since they can be taken from enemy soldiers, they can be stolen from government reserves, some soldiers can keep them to resell them”, admits the associate professor of Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies at the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Toronto, Matthew Light.
“There are many ways that weapons intended for the defense of the country end up in the wrong hands. It happened after the Second World War, after the Balkan wars in the 1990s, and it will also be a problem in Ukraine when the local need for weapons decreases, ”he continues.
It should be noted that military grade weapons have already been used in terrorist attacks, such as that of Charlie Hebdoin January 2015, notes Francis Langlois, firearms expert from the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
Ukraine is also preparing to receive a new shipment of arms from the United States worth one billion dollars.
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A necessary risk
But although risks exist, Matthew Light recalls that arms deliveries to Ukraine are the best solution that its allies, such as Canada, have found to come to its aid.
“Ukraine is currently fighting for its survival against an enemy that is invading it and violating its independence. She still has pressing military needs and her allies have decided that the best way to help her without intervening is to send arms. So the main issue here is whether Ukraine will retain its independence and remain a free country, or whether it will cease to exist and become a kind of colony of Russia,” he said.
The Ukrainian government also seems determined to fight against arms trafficking.
“The Ukrainian government is not passive in the face of this issue and their determination should not be doubted. Ukraine’s institutions function quite well on several levels despite the war,” says the man who studies public security issues in the former republics of the Soviet Union.
“Besides, the Ukrainian soldiers involved in the arms seizures to whom we spoke confirmed to us that these seizures occur every day. We can see that as proof that the problem exists, but also as a sign that the government is tackling it,” he concludes.