You can be 100% certain that Western weapons are making, and will make, their way to the Black Market.
Ukraine is a poor country with a long history of corruption and is flooded with weapons.
Motive and Opportunity.
Absence of proof is not proof of absence. But there is proof.
From gunpolicy.org :
"Ukraine has a history of arms exports to areas of conflict, embargoed states and regimes known to commit human rights abuses. Small arms often leak into grey markets or black markets...
National stockpiles remain a source for illicit flows. Since 2014, armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine weakened state control over national stockpiles that were raided to support armed groups and feed the black market. By 2015, at least 300,000 small arms and light weapons had been looted or lost..."
In one 4 year period alone, 32 BILLION dollars in arms were stolen in the Ukraine.
Interpol, the US, and other countries would not be making headlines now about instituting inventory management controls if it believed there is no problem with arms trafficking.
A little research yields a trove of objective articles on this.
People here are always demanding links. Here's one which provides past but recent examples and digs deeper, such as where these arms re-surface:
On Feb. 12 last year, the same day that a ceasefire ended the worst of the fighting in eastern Ukraine between rebels and government forces, a former rebel fighter seized a chance to turn his inside knowledge of the conflict...
You can be 100% certain that Western weapons are making, and will make, their way to the Black Market.
Ukraine is a poor country with a long history of corruption and is flooded with weapons.
Motive and Opportunity.
Absence of proof is not proof of absence. But there is proof.
From gunpolicy.org :
"Ukraine has a history of arms exports to areas of conflict, embargoed states and regimes known to commit human rights abuses. Small arms often leak into grey markets or black markets...
National stockpiles remain a source for illicit flows. Since 2014, armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine weakened state control over national stockpiles that were raided to support armed groups and feed the black market. By 2015, at least 300,000 small arms and light weapons had been looted or lost..."
In one 4 year period alone, 32 BILLION dollars in arms were stolen in the Ukraine.
Interpol, the US, and other countries would not be making headlines now about instituting inventory management controls if it believed there is no problem with arms trafficking.
A little research yields a trove of objective articles on this.
People here are always demanding links. Here's one which provides past but recent examples and digs deeper, such as where these arms re-surface:
Pulling a pistol from his waistband, the young man spun his human shield toward police. “Don’t do it!” a pursuing officer pleaded. The young man complied, releasing the bystander and tossing the gun, which skittered across th...
Remember, every dead Russian soldier is one step closer to peace in Ukraine, peace in Europe, and peace on earth.
Right.
Killing Russians is fare more important than housing, healthcare, food, safe infrastructure, affordable education here at home.
That money is ultimately going to the American companies that build all the equipment that is being sent to Ukraine (the Evil Military Industrial Complex!), right? And those companies pay taxes and employee salaries? And those employees pay taxes on their salary? And many of those salaries are highly-compensated positions, like engineers? So, the government is indirectly funding high paying jobs and increased tax base.
There is an enormous difference between a few guns going missing in the US vs. billions of dollars of Ukraine arms being stolen over decades, feeding the black market.
It's like saying someone who got 1% and someone who got 99% on a test are the same because neither was perfect.
I have made no comment on whether arms should be supplied to the Ukraine.
What Interpol, along with the US and European governments are are suggesting is not to cut off arms supplies, but to employ reasonable mechanisms to manage and track their distribution.
As things are, weapons are dropped at the border and not much is known what happens to them after that.
Yevgeny Prigozhin will be charged with war crimes at the conclusion of this war. Anyone working for him could also face war crime charges. A new Russian government decades from now could even begin prosecuting Russian war criminals, like Germany began doing with Nazi war criminals. Russian trolls be careful what you do and who you work for during this war. You could find yourself on trial for war crimes decades from now.
The arms smuggling allegations are just Russian attempts to undermine support for sending arms to Ukraine because the Russians know that they cannot defeat Ukraine militarily if UA has access to arms. Just look at how Russia has recently stepped up missile attacks on civilian targets, bombing apartment complexes, schools, and a busy shopping center in areas that are far from areas where Russia and Ukraine forces are engaging each other (i.e. no way to make the bogus claim that Azov was launching attacks from the apartment complex, etc.).
look, some of the weapons given to ukraine will no doubt end up killing innocent people inside and outside ukraine. All we can do in situations like this is try to get more good done than bad. And stopping russia from invading one country after the next is the greater good.
frightening what depravities a cornered RU army will do to distract. Not looking forward to this part of the war, unless UKR actually can mount an offensive. (doubtful).
Imagine this....the mighty RU army now degraded to the point it has to *attempt* to take small Ukrainian towns. Amazing stuff.
The “mighty” Russian army have taken 150 days to control 7% of Ukraine.
Russia are now forced to turn the entire country into a war machine, forcing companies to make weapons and forcing citizens, even old men, to go fight.
Russia have been excluded from world affairs, and they are hated and untrusted the world over.
The “mighty” Russian army have taken 150 days to control 7% of Ukraine.
Russia are now forced to turn the entire country into a war machine, forcing companies to make weapons and forcing citizens, even old men, to go fight.
Russia have been excluded from world affairs, and they are hated and untrusted the world over.
being banned from the Olympics was one of the first signs, right? The country was spinning into a pariah and sports was one of the early tells.
All Russia has accomplished is to show the world they can't fight and they are stupid and brutal. Big mistake messing with Ukraine. They did gain 800 miles if NATO on their border now with Finland. Putin is an idiot.
