MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The United Kingdom’s initiative to audit military assistance to Ukraine is too late as the weapons provided to Kiev have already entered the black market, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said at a briefing on Wednesday.
The diplomat pointed to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s instructions to his government to audit the UK’s weapons supplies to Ukraine. "I’m afraid it’s a bit too late because, for instance, man-portable air-defense systems pose the biggest threat to civilian aircraft and judging by the information that we have, many of those weapons have gone to the black market. No one knows where they will pop up and how they will be used," Ulyanov stated.
The Russian envoy also noted that a number of European Union countries had already expressed concern about the illicit trafficking of Western weapons and "directly named Ukraine and Moldova as the most disturbing places."
According to him, Russia continues to raise the issue on international platforms. "Cases of the illicit trade of Western weapons are no secret to anyone though Ukraine keeps rejecting them. Does the issue worry anyone apart from Russia? It certainly does. The Westerners understand everything," Ulyanov concluded.