With the proliferation of shipments of military equipment and weapons to Ukraine, a number of allied countries have been concerned for several months about their possible dissemination outside the Ukrainian theater through criminal groups or the black market. Even if, at this stage, no public element makes it possible to support this phenomenon which had occurred at the end of the 1990s with the wars of Yugoslavia and still feeds the traffics in Western Europe, this risk makes the object of growing concern today, in Paris, at the top of the executive.
“This is one of the points on which we are strongly pushing exchanges with the British, the Americans and also at European level”confirms a senior French official for whom it is necessary to improve ” traceability “ weapons delivered. For the most imposing military equipment such as tanks, multiple rocket launchers or howitzers, such as the French Caesar guns, this traceability does not appear too complicated to set up. Field intelligence and satellite observation can make it relatively easy to locate them.
The difficulties concern more ammunition and small arms, in particular those which enabled the Ukrainians to make a difference vis-à-vis the Russians during the first phase of the war. “The Javelins, the Stingers, that’s a subject”, thus considers the same French source. Clearly, all these portable weapons with easy handling, capable of neutralizing an armored vehicle several hundred meters away or capable of reaching helicopters and combat aircraft at low altitude.
“A blank page” on the location of weapons
Most western weapons “land in southern Poland, are shipped to the border [ukrainienne], then are simply distributed in vehicles to cross: trucks, vans, sometimes private carshave thus entrusted Western officials to the FinancialTimesJuly 12. But from then on, it’s a blank page that opens on their whereabouts and we have no idea where they go, where they are used or even if they stay in the country. . » Since taking office, the Biden administration has donated approximately $8 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine.
“The United States takes very seriously its responsibility to protect US-sourced defense technologies and to prevent their misappropriation or illicit proliferation,” confirmed Bonnie Denise Jenkins, US Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security, during a visit to Brussels in mid-July. Several capitals have expressed concern about the lack of “transparency” on the part of the Ukrainians. A concern also relayed by Europol, the European police agency, in a press release on July 22: “The proliferation of firearms and explosives in Ukraine could lead to increased trafficking to the EU through smuggling routes or online platforms. »
You have 39% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.