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Fight against Islamic state

Ukrainian Defense Ministry has no information on terrorists’ weapons purchases in Ukraine

Lebanese citizen arrested in Kuwait on November 19 for complicity in the activity of the IS terrorist organization admitted to concluding arms deals in Ukraine to supply weapons to Syria across Turkey

© Militant website via AP, File

KIEV, November 20. /TASS/. Ukraine has not produced or supplied FN-6 antiaircraft missile systems to the Islamic State terrorist organization, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s press office reported on Friday.

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Poroshenko confirms having information on possible attacks of Islamists staying in Ukraine

"Ukraine has not produced or purchased Chinese-made antiaircraft missile systems mentioned in media reports and has not provided transit for their transportation," the press office said.

"Also, the FN-6 antiaircraft missile system has never been operational in the armed forces or other military formations of Ukraine," the press office said.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in comments for TASS on Friday that Ukraine’s Defense Ministry had no information on weapons purchases by militants of the Islamic State terrorist grouping in the country.

"You should turn to law-enforcement agencies on this issue. I have nothing to report on this topic," Vladislav Seleznyov said.

Read also

Media reports said earlier with reference to a statement by Kuwait’s Interior Ministry that Lebanese citizen Osama Khayat arrested in Kuwait on November 19 for complicity in the activity of the Islamic State terrorist organization admitted to concluding arms deals in Ukraine to supply weapons to Syria across Turkey.

The reports did not specify, however, whether the deliveries were legal and made through Ukraine’s Ukroboronprom arms seller or whether arms were stolen from the area of Kiev’s military operation in east Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has said on many occasions that illegal arms trade in the country has increased considerably, with 70% of weapons coming from the area of the Ukrainian army’s operation in the Donbass region.

According to some data, Ukrainian citizens have about 6 million arms on their hands compared with 3 million guns a year earlier.

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Ukraine Islamic State Terrorism

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