Author: Fabrizio Vielmini – 23/02/2023
The Boomerangs of European support to Ukraine: Weapons smuggling can become a major security problem for the future.
If only a single feature should be named to describe the reckless attitude of most of EU countries towards the crisis in Ukraine since 2013, that is without doubt self-delusion. Brussel precipitated the “Euro-Maidan” protests based of the conviction that the whole Ukraine could be pulled into the grips of European capitalism disregarding Russian interests without consequences. When civil war ensued, EU functionaries multiplied efforts at ‘democracy building’ in a country torn apart, where leftist parties are banned and journalism is censored. Nevertheless, EU representatives, as long as the neoliberal exploitation of the national richness is guaranteed continued taking at face value Ukrainian regime’s imitations of reform.[1] Then, when Moscow went to the not-less-reckless decision to start a full-scale war to resolve the crisis, instead of pushing for a negotiation, the Europeans put their helmets on and started to provide huge amounts of ammunition and arms to Kiev in the delusional hope of an Ukrainian victory over Russia.
The unconditional support that the EU has wielded to the Ukrainian line of military resolution of the confrontation has already resulted in a number of setbacks for Europe in economic terms. But this tragic war presents another even grimmer perspective for the future of the continent. This concerns the consequences of the diversion of the flows of weapons sent to the Ukrainian armed forces since arms can may end up in the hands of illegal armed groups across the continent and beyond.
The issue has been so far dismissed by EU politicians as “Russian propaganda”. At the same time, the magnitude and seriousness of the problem was revealed by a material which appeared last week (17th February) on the pages of “The Wall Street Journal”. The paper reported that, with the next $110 billion slot of US military aid to Ukraine, the Pentagon and State Department decided to move their inspectors and investigators from Poland directly into the war zone in order to monitor and track over the final destination of the huge weapon supplies that Washington is sending to the crumpling country. Thus far, these personnel were left to conduct oversight based in Poland and Germany.[2] The decision is thus a clear signal that something is not going in the expected direction. Previously the EU law enforcement agency, Europol, pointed out to cases of smuggling of military equipment from Ukraine back to European countries. On 22nd July 2022, a Europol statement “warned that the proliferation of firearms and explosives in Ukraine could lead to an increase in firearms and munitions trafficked into the EU via established smuggling routes or online platformsi”.[3] The risk is that weapons may fall into the hands of organized crime groups and terrorists. said the agency’s spokesman, Mr. Jan Op Gen Oort. The EU self-delusion at its policy towards Ukraine is such that even an official outlet as “Euractiv” reported at the end of 2022 that weapons sent to Ukraine may have found their way back to Finland ending up in the hands of the criminal underground.[4] As recently reported by the Financial Times (a fact that provoked the ire of Kiev’ Foreign Ministry booming “Russian propaganda”), the EU nations agreed in late January to make the tackling of the weapons and human trafficking from Ukraine a key focus area of the bloc’s security policies.[5]
These risks are composed by the fact that the contents of most of the western shipments are not revealed due to alleged security concerns. Given that increasingly sophisticated weapons are delivered to Kiev, if earlier simple small arms and military equipment passed through smuggling channels, now it could even be the case that high-tech armaments find their way to the underworld.
Smuggling of weapons has always been one of the features of the “empire of capital” over Ukraine. As soon as the country fell under control of a kleptocracy connected with Western centres of power, during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, from 1994 to 2005, criminal activity and global mafia networks worked to capitalize on the huge stocks of weapons left by the USSR in its former provinces. Analyst Misha Glenny concluded that during Kuchma’s tenure, equal to a “total criminalisation of the Ukrainian government and civil service”, Kiev allowed for the smugglings of arms to Bosnian Serb forces and a sale of ‘$100-million worth of high-technology anti-aircraft to Iraq, in both cases against the UN control mechanisms[6]. The importance of the Ukraine as an international centre of weapons trafficking was confirmed in 2009 when a Ukrainian cargo ship that was caught trafficking tanks, artillery and AKM assault rifles to Sudan[7].
On the other hand, weapon smuggling is a constant feature of US inspired and sponsored war and insurgencies. Under President Barack Obama Washington supported jihadism across the Middle east. War reporter Robert Fisk described how the US sent 500 million dollars’ worth of weapons to the so-called “moderate rebels” in Syria.[8] These weapons were then sold to ISIS and various branches of al Qaeda. The very birth of the latter was a direct consequence of Western support for Afghan mujahidin against the Soviet intervention in that country during the 1980s.
The lessons of Afghanistan have been completely missed. And this is even more irrational given that they could be easily collated with the observation of the consequences of the Anglo-American aggression against Iraq and the destabilization which was subsequently fostered across the Middle East. As the quoted Europol Ukrainian report also stated, “this (weapons smuggling) threat might even be higher once the conflict has ended”.Indeed,if the current war will end with a collapse of the Maidan regime (what in facts amounts to the best-case scenario for Europe, given that otherwise we can expect a plunging of Russia into chaos and a potential nuclear Armageddon), then we can foresee a situation where a number of armed groups will start waging low-level internecine civil war. As observed by academic Gordon M. Hahn, the fragmentation of the Ukrainian armed forces, beefed ups for almost ten years now by NATO armies and embedded with neofascist-controlled volunteer battalions, will make that no ceasefire or other kind of negotiated arrangements will hold the line in the previously Kiev controlled territories[9]. One is left to think what will happen then of the huge number of weapons unconsciously distributed by European countries to the Zelenski regime, especially in view of the operational links between such armed formation and the neofascist networks of the West.
Beyond the security threat it entails, this situation is particularly a matter of outrage for Italy. Our country’s Constitution explicitly prohibits the use of force as a mean to resolve international disputes (art. 11). In a clear violation of the Nation’s Fundamental Law, the two governments ruling over the Ukrainian crisis have actively contributed to the arming of Kiev forces, as requested by the Anglo-American patrons and despite the clear opposition of the vast majority of the Italian people. An ulterior contradiction in the paradox stems from the fact that the current Italian government is composed by forces claiming to express the national sovereign interests of the country while in facts they work for their complete obliteration.
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[1] Y. Yurchenko, Ukraine and the Empire of Capital from Marketisation to Armed Conflict, Pluto Press, London 2018.
[2] W. P. Strobel, G. Lubold, U.S. Watchdogs Want to Deploy Staff to Ukraine War Zone to Track Arms, Aid Up Close,
[3] https://europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/europol-statement-cooperation-ukraine
[4] https://euractiv.com/section/all/short_news/weapons-sent-to-ukraine-may-have-ended-up-in-finnish-underground/
[5] H. Foy, Moldova’s PM calls for more EU help to curb Ukraine war smuggling, “The Financial Times”, 06.02.2023
[6] M. Glenny, McMafia: Crime Without Frontiers, Bodley Head, London 2008.
[7] The incident came to light when the ship was captured by Somali pirates. Foreign supplied weapons to Ukraine raise fears of smuggling to far away conflicts, terror groups, “The Economic Times”, 07.08.2022,
[8] Robert Fisk on Syria’s Civil War, Chemical Weapons “Theater” & Obama’s Backing of Israeli Strikes, 07.05.2013
[9] G. M. Hahn, The Iraq Scenario: the Specter of Ukrainian Instability and Chaos, Russian & Eurasian Politics, 18.04.2022
Fabrizio Vielmini, MA
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Policy Research & Outreach
Westminster International University in Tashkent – UZ
Senior Analyst at Vision & Global Trends – International Institute for Global Analyses – Italy