MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. The uncontrolled flooding of Kiev with weapons by the West has already resulted in a large-scale increase in arms smuggling, their emergence on the blacknet and the darknet, Ivan Nechayev, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department, told a briefing on Thursday.
"The uncontrolled flooding of Kiev with weapons has already led to a rise in illegal arms trafficking and their emergence on the black market, including the darknet segment," he said.
The diplomat noted that, according to law enforcement of EU countries, hundreds of units of automatic weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo illegally delivered from Ukraine are being seized monthly and returned to that country. "And this is not just about light weapons. For example, on the darknet they are offering to buy missiles for a Javelin anti-tank missile system for $30,000 while their production is six times more expensive - $178,000," the diplomat explained. "Missiles for NLAW anti-tank missile systems for $15,000, Switchblade 600 kamikaze drones for $7,000, light arms, grenades and bulletproof vests - from $1,000 to $3,500. This alarming trend is causing increasingly more questions among the Western public," he added.
The diplomat noted that in addition to armaments, the US provides Ukraine with reconnaissance data. "That said, according to existing reports, information is being used not only from military [satellites] but also from the civilian, private satellites which essentially leads to the militarization of space," he concluded.