© EYEPRESS via Reuters Connect/TASS
Most part of military assistance coming to Ukraine from the West fails to reach its final destination. An assessment to this effect has been voiced in CBS’s documentary, broadcast on August 7. The TV channel has revealed some excerpts on its website a bit earlier.
Most of these weapons and military supplies arrive at the Polish border, where the United States and NATO allies promptly hand them over to Ukrainian officials, at which point US supervision ends, CBS notes. According to Jonas Ohman, head of the Lithuania-based Blue-Yellow NGO engaged in transporting military aid to the Ukrainian side, only 30 to 40% of weaponry sent to Ukraine gets into the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as the intended recipient. "There are like power lords, oligarchs, political players operating in the country," Ohman stated, speaking about corruption in Ukraine.
In turn, US Marine Corps veteran Andy Milburn is sure units in the front line do not receive Switchblade drones, bulletproof vests, helmets, you name it. Milburn has established and leads the Mozart Group, a military training center in Ukraine. "If you can’t see where all this stuff goes... yes, you get an impression of a black hole," the marine veteran added.
The CBS film voices suspicions that some weapons end up in the black market and may fall into the "wrong hands" to become a source of instability, like it was in Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan, especially if Russia emerges victorious from the current conflict. In particular, the documentary cites Donatella Rovera, senior crisis adviser at the Amnesty International human rights organization, that weapons handed by Western countries over to law enforcement agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan did not arrive at target points and fell into extremists’ hands instead. By the way, Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department Bonnie Jenkins also drew attention to this fact, as she pointed to the need of monitoring US arms supplies to Ukraine back in July.
By and large, CBS’s revelations are not a big secret. At least, Russia has long been talking about this. For instance, back on April 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told China’s Xinhua news agency that various types of weapons were “flowing endlessly into Ukraine” from the West. According to him, all of this is being done under the pretext of “fighting the invasion”, but in fact the United States and the European Union intend to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.” Earlier, Lavrov and other officials also highlighted the danger of Western weaponry spreading to other regions.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has repeatedly warned that militarizing Ukraine by the West is a direct threat to both European and global security. In this regard, Moscow urges sponsors of the Kiev regime to stop encouraging bloodshed in Ukraine and give thought to consequences, the diplomat explained when commenting upon arms supplies.
On we go. On July 11, a Russian RaHDIt hacker group member said that secret data features Ukrainian intelligence allegedly interacting with criminal syndicates and smugglers to huckster Western weapons in the black market. It is not even about small arms, but anti-tank systems (American Javelins and British NLAWs) and grenade launchers.
Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also touched upon arms supply to Ukraine, noting that part of them is estimated to be spreading across the Middle East, and part caves in the black market.
In turn, Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov said on July 26 that the spread of foreign mercenaries and weapons from Ukraine poses a threat to CIS member states to be eliminated by "updating interaction patterns."
Notably, the West knew about arms trafficking without any documentaries. Thus, Europol has previously recorded cases of smuggling weapons from Ukraine to Europe. As the German agency DPA reported with reference to spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth, weapons may fall into the hands of criminals and terrorists. In turn, Germany’s SWR broadcaster referred to a secret Europol document to report criminal groups operating in the region and planning or already smuggling a lot of Western arms from Ukraine.
However, despite all of this, the same USA continues to pump various types of weapons into Ukraine, including heavy ones. Since the turn of this year, Washington has approved the allocation of military aid worth $8.8 billion to the Kiev regime, with the administration set to announce a new $1 billion package on August 8, Reuters writes. It particularly includes long-range weapon ammunition.
Western countries, primarily the United States, started actively arming Ukraine over Russia’s special military operation launched in late February to protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR). It followed an aggravation in the region and relevant appeals by the Donbass residents and the republics’ subsequent recognition by Moscow. Let’s not forget the Kiev regime’s military operation against them for refusing to recognize results of the coup in 2014.
Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin said “all the fuss over additional arms deliveries to Kiev pursues the sole goal of stretching out the armed conflict in Ukraine as long as possible”. And what is more ˗ to exhaust, weaken and eventually oust Russia from the world stage. Western strategists forget they are dealing with a powerful military power which possesses nearly half of the world’s nuclear arsenal. This fact should cool hot heads both in the West and in Ukraine with its Nazi-supporting regime. The destruction of which made Russia launch its special operation, at the end of the day.
