Ukraine — at the epicenter of another arms scandal. News Agency Reuters has published an investigation where it is stated that the arms from the Ukraine illegally supplied terrorist groups in different part of the world to the middle East, to Europe, to Russia. According to the expert Mark Galeotti, transport weapons in areas of armed conflict (Libya, Syria, Iraq) can be accessed through the port of Odessa, through the Balkans and the North Caucasus.
I must say that this is not the first time that Ukraine is accused of smuggling weapons. For anybody not a secret that a sale to a rich Soviet legacy of three military districts Kiev, Odessa, Carpathian is one of the main sources of income close to VSU officers, and Ukraine, even in peacetime, was in the top 5 players in the global black arms market. The scale of theft in the structures are such that analysts Transparency International considers Ukraine to the group of States with particularly high corruption risks in the defence sector. Apparently, one of the reasons for the reluctance of the West to provide Kiev with lethal weapons is to understand Western officials that it will only enrich the Ukrainian “gun mafia”, and does not enhance APU for “war with Russia”.
Not so long ago, in the fall of 2015, in Kuwait, the local authorities stopped the activities of a criminal cell involved in arms supplies to “Islamic state” (banned in Russia). The leader of the cell, the Lebanese-born Osama Khayat, who admitted that he bought the weapons in Ukraine and sent him to Syria through Turkey.
Somewhat earlier, in February 2015, a group of hackers “Cyberberkut has published documents where the smuggled weapons to Syria. Concrete names — Deputy Minister of defense Pyotr mekhed and the head of Kharkiv regional state administration Igor baluta, carried out, according to the documents, deliveries through the Odessa port, and, interestingly, not radical Islamists, and the government of Bashar al-Assad.
According to some information this is not the first delivery of weapons from Ukraine to Syria. In 2013, the Washington Post reported that the port of “Oktyabrsk” (Nikolaev oblast) is one of the key points for the supply of arms (including Russian) to the Syrian regime. The newspaper quoted the expert report according to which for smuggled armaments in the ports of Syria are being used as small ships under the Syrian and Lebanese flags and huge bulk carriers owned including Russian and Ukrainian businessmen.
In addition, “Cybermarket” released documents showing negotiations of the Ukrainian side with Qatar for deliveries of the latest batch of SAM “Pechora”. It is noteworthy here that the negotiations coincided with the placement of planes of the Russian HQs in Syria, and Qatar are known as one of the major sponsors of the middle East terrorist international.
Well-known gun scandals during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, painful blow to Ukraine’s reputation in the international arena. Thus, the wide resonance was received by history in 2008, when a cargo ship “Faina” with the Ukrainian party of weapons (33 T-72 tanks, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition was seized by Somali pirates. The ship, the crew of which there were 17 Ukrainians were redeemed, however, as it turned out, the weapons were not meant for Kenya, Sudan, under UN security Council sanctions on arms sales because of the threat of civil war.
In 2008, a scandal erupted around the company “UkrSpetsExport” in connection with the supply of SAM “Wasp” and “Buk” in Georgia before and during the armed conflict in South Ossetia. Moscow then accused the Kiev government in the illegal arms supplies to Tbilisi, as Ukrainian opposition political forces (Party of regions, Communist party) have used this conflict as an excuse to remove Yushchenko from power, as anti-aircraft missiles were removed from combat duty APU with gross violation of the law, undermining the defenses of Ukraine.
It is impossible not to recall the infamous “mail scandal”, complicated Ukraine’s relations with the West. A year before the American military campaign against Iraq, has accused Kiev of supplying Baghdad radar complexes “Kolchuga” Donetsk production enterprise “Topaz”, capable of detecting aircraft from steel technology in violation of UN sanctions. Although no real evidence of supply “Kolchuga” to Iraq was not granted, the scandal was a stain on the reputation of the Ukrainian authorities in General, and Leonid Kuchma personally, after which the West strengthened the opinion that it is necessary to facilitate the coming to power in Ukraine opposition led by Viktor Yushchenko.
There is no doubt that Ukraine, headed by the Maidan power in various part of the world is the flow of a wide range of weapons. Since the coup and the beginning of the war in the Donbas, the country is saturated with weapons and extremists of various stripes, who see Ukraine as the ideal place for the purchase of weapons at dumping prices and its transit in “hot” points. A recent example in June on the border of Ukraine with Poland, the SBU detained the citizen of France, in the car, which was carrying a large consignment of arms (three grenade launchers, several Kalashnikov rifles, more than 100 kg of explosives, detonators). According to the head of SBU Vasily Gritsak, it was an extremist who planned a series of 15 terrorist attacks in France during a football tournament of Euro 2016, but according to the French side we are talking about smuggling weapons.
Version of the French law enforcement authorities are much more persuasive, as for the past two and a half years to all officials, security service attitude is very critical. In particular, methods of “struggle” SBU illicit arms, said Volodymyr Zamana, head of the General staff of Ukraine at Victor Yanukovych, “get Out of the SBU, the head of which is also subordinated to the President, almost every day issues, saying that there is an Arsenal of illegal weapons found, here on a bribe red-handed taken. Sbushniki themselves buried weapons, and a few days dig out in front of the cameras. We need to stop the PR”.
And while the security services promoted, and the ranks of the APU to make the smuggling of arms, Ukraine is mired in the abyss of criminal lawlessness (crime rates compared to 2013 has increased several times and became a point of attraction of extremists from various parts of the world.
