Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2...ng-as-over-20-countries-send-arms-to-ukraine/
Risk of weapons vanishing as over 20 countries send arms to Ukraine
Diversion to the black market was already a problem there. Now that the pipeline is flowing, there needs to be more controls.
March 7, 2022
Written by
Taylor Giorno
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, moving photos of Ukrainian civilians lining up to grab automatic rifles introduced news coverage of the evolving crisis.
Twitter fangirled over the Ukrainian member of Parliament, Lesia Vasylenko, whose father-in-law taught her to use an AK-47 that she now uses to defend her family and her country. Reddit celebrated a young Ukrainian couple who married the day Russia invaded and took up arms together. These photos and stories, meant to rally support for civilians risking their life for home and country, largely ignore the risk of diversion that comes with issuing weapons with little to no oversight.
Over 20 countries have pledged or delivered billions of dollars of military hardware to Ukraine over the past two months, ramping up the risk of diversion, which occurs when weapons, ammunition, and supplies like fuel are redirected from their intended recipients or purpose, usually for illicit activity. The Ukrainian people have the right to self-defense in the face of an invading Russian army according to the United Nations Charter, but flooding weapons into what the Global Organized Crime Index describes as “one of the largest arms trafficking markets in Europe” is a recipe for disaster.
Ukraine struggled with diversion before the Russian invasion, with civilians and soldiers alike funneling weapons into an expansive illicit weapons trafficking network. Although Ukraine ramped up investigations into the theft of military property in 2014, diversion of small and major arms persisted. A Small Arms Survey briefing on illicit arms flows in 2017, for example, found that, of the more than 300,000 small arms that disappeared from Ukraine from 2013 to 2015, only about 13 percent were ever recovered.
The diversion of military-grade weapons is a profitable business in Ukraine, and thousands of hand grenades, rockets, and landmines proliferated from conflict zones around the Donbas region to cities and towns throughout the country. Theft and diversion are not confined to small arms or civilian thieves. In 2019, for example, two Ukrainian soldiers attempted to sell 40 RGD-5 grenades, 15 RPG-22 rockets, and 2,454 firearms cartridges for a mere 75,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (approximately $2,900).
In 2020, a rocket launcher was found in a dumpster in Zhytomyr. That same year, in Odessa, the Security Service of Ukraine discovered 18 RGD-5 grenades, 12 F-1 grenades, and 2 anti-tank mines in a nearby power facility that a service member had stolen from a military base. The servicemen sold at least two grenades before his arrest.
As a report from the Stimson Center notes, the risk of diversion of these war-fighting weapons is even higher for international weapons transfers. In fact, the Global Organized Crime Index found Ukraine’s role as a key link in the global arms trade has only grown since conflicts intensified in eastern Ukraine in recent years. This is a bad omen for the recent influx of international arms transfers....
Risk of weapons vanishing as over 20 countries send arms to Ukraine
Diversion to the black market was already a problem there. Now that the pipeline is flowing, there needs to be more controls.
March 7, 2022
Written by
Taylor Giorno
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, moving photos of Ukrainian civilians lining up to grab automatic rifles introduced news coverage of the evolving crisis.
Twitter fangirled over the Ukrainian member of Parliament, Lesia Vasylenko, whose father-in-law taught her to use an AK-47 that she now uses to defend her family and her country. Reddit celebrated a young Ukrainian couple who married the day Russia invaded and took up arms together. These photos and stories, meant to rally support for civilians risking their life for home and country, largely ignore the risk of diversion that comes with issuing weapons with little to no oversight.
Over 20 countries have pledged or delivered billions of dollars of military hardware to Ukraine over the past two months, ramping up the risk of diversion, which occurs when weapons, ammunition, and supplies like fuel are redirected from their intended recipients or purpose, usually for illicit activity. The Ukrainian people have the right to self-defense in the face of an invading Russian army according to the United Nations Charter, but flooding weapons into what the Global Organized Crime Index describes as “one of the largest arms trafficking markets in Europe” is a recipe for disaster.
Ukraine struggled with diversion before the Russian invasion, with civilians and soldiers alike funneling weapons into an expansive illicit weapons trafficking network. Although Ukraine ramped up investigations into the theft of military property in 2014, diversion of small and major arms persisted. A Small Arms Survey briefing on illicit arms flows in 2017, for example, found that, of the more than 300,000 small arms that disappeared from Ukraine from 2013 to 2015, only about 13 percent were ever recovered.
The diversion of military-grade weapons is a profitable business in Ukraine, and thousands of hand grenades, rockets, and landmines proliferated from conflict zones around the Donbas region to cities and towns throughout the country. Theft and diversion are not confined to small arms or civilian thieves. In 2019, for example, two Ukrainian soldiers attempted to sell 40 RGD-5 grenades, 15 RPG-22 rockets, and 2,454 firearms cartridges for a mere 75,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (approximately $2,900).
In 2020, a rocket launcher was found in a dumpster in Zhytomyr. That same year, in Odessa, the Security Service of Ukraine discovered 18 RGD-5 grenades, 12 F-1 grenades, and 2 anti-tank mines in a nearby power facility that a service member had stolen from a military base. The servicemen sold at least two grenades before his arrest.
As a report from the Stimson Center notes, the risk of diversion of these war-fighting weapons is even higher for international weapons transfers. In fact, the Global Organized Crime Index found Ukraine’s role as a key link in the global arms trade has only grown since conflicts intensified in eastern Ukraine in recent years. This is a bad omen for the recent influx of international arms transfers....
