The EU has no reason to doubt that Kyiv will keep weapons away from the black market, said a senior official
A senior spokesman for EU foreign affairs seemed to allay Member States’ fears that weapons delivered to Ukraine found their way into the black market. In an interview published on Thursday by a Ukrainian news website, Peter Stano sa The EU had “no reason not to trust” Kyiv in question.
The news agency Ukrinform asked Stano for comments afterwards “speculative assumptions have emerged” in Western media “on the risk of smuggling the weapons delivered to Ukraine by Western partners.” Ukrinform did not specify which articles it was referring to.
But the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that EU member states were worried about where the weapons were. The British newspaper said that Western countries want Ukraine to have a more robust system for tracking the weapons it receives to fight Russia.
“All these weapons land in southern Poland, are sent to the border and then divided into vehicles to cross: trucks, vans, sometimes private cars.” a western official was quoted by the FT as said. “And from that moment on, we go blank in their place and we have no idea where they are going, where they are used or even if they are staying in the country.”
Stano told Ukrinform that the EU military “Aid is subject to strict controls and safeguards, including after delivery,” and expressed certainty that Kyiv handled the weapons it received properly.
“We have no reason not to trust the Ukrainian government leading a fight to defend the country and the Ukrainian people against a brutal aggressor.” he was quoted as saying.
Warnings that weapons sent to Ukraine could end up on the black market came from organizations such as Interpol and Europol. Police officers in some countries such as Sweden also spoke about the danger of arms trafficking from Ukraine.
According to an RT investigation, weapons from the West such as the shoulder-fired anti-tank missile NLAW or the Switchblade ‘kamikaze drone’ are easily offered by arms smugglers on Darknet.
The EU official seemed to address the issue by accusing Russia of diverting them.
“Let us not forget that arms deliveries to Ukraine are a potential target for hostile action” of Russia, he stated.
When prompted by the withdrawal, Stano seemed to dismiss smuggling problems as nothing more than Russian misinformation.
“Basically, everything that comes out of the Kremlin and from the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs is massive propaganda and often simply lies.” he claimed.
The EU has so far provided โฌ 2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine through the European Peace Facility.
Source: sn.dk