Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Buscemi, Francesco et al.. 2018 ‘Illicit Firearms Proliferation in the EU Periphery: the Case of Ukraine.’ Triggering Terror: Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe, p. 461. Brussels: Flemish Peace Institute. 17 April
Relevant contents
2.1 Historical legacy of surplus weapons
A significant number of the illegally held firearms that are currently in circulation in Ukraine can be traced back to the armed conflicts that Ukraine experienced in the 20th century. Between the First and Second World War the area that constitutes present-day Ukraine was swept by several armed conflicts. Eastern Galicia was the theatre of the Polish-Ukrainian war fought in 1918 and 1919 following the First World War. In the same years the rest of the country was experiencing a civil conflict that later led to the formation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR)
in 1922. Two decades later the fragmented configuration of the country re-emerged once again with the outbreak and unfolding of the Second World War. Many of the weapons used during these armed conflicts remained stored in arms stockpiles after the Soviet revolution and became obsolete after the introduction of the AK assault rifle.(12)
Weapons originating from the conflicts experienced by the country in the first half of the 20th century have also traditionally been stored in households.(13) Insurgents taking part in the 1917-1922 civil war and earlier revolts regularly buried their weapons so that they could dig them up them if the rebellion were reignited. In the aftermath of the 2014 Euromaidan demonstrations the process re-emerged of weapons being held legally or illegally by the civilian population in both pro-government and separatist ranks.(14)
Another important historical element that partially explains the high levels of illegal firearms in the country is the fact that the Ukrainian SSR was home to huge military stockpiles and troop deployments. As part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was critical to the Warsaw Pact's military-industrial complex and defence apparatus.(15) With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited 1,810 defence enterprises with a total workforce of 2.7 million employees, which amounted to 30% of the Soviet Union's defence industry.(16) In the stratified Soviet military strategy, the country formed the third defence echelon of the former Warsaw Pact states in the event of war.(17) Part of this historical tradition has remained: Ukraine is currently still home to several small arms and light weapons manufacturers.(18)
13 Gilley, C. (2015), Otamanshchyna? The self-formation of Ukrainian and Russian warlords at the beginning of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Ab Imperio, 2015: 3, pp. 73-95, pp. 87-88.
14 Griffith, H. and Karp, A. (2008), Ukraine: Coping with Post-Soviet Legacies, Contemporary Security Policy, 2008: 29:1, pp. 202-228.
15) UNODC (2010), The globalization of crime a transnational organized crime threat assessment, chap. 6, Firearms, Wien: United Nations Publications, 129-149, https:// www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta/6.Firearms.pdf.
16) Griffith, H. and Karp, A. (2008).
17) Chivers, C.J., Post-Soviet Danger: Vulnerable Munitions Depots (16 July 2005), http:// www.nytimes.com/2005/07/16/world/europe/postsoviet-danger-vulnerable-munitions- depots.html?mcubz=1, consulted in June 2017.
18) Ukroboronprom, http://ukroboronprom.com.ua/en/category/struktura/za-regionom/kyyivska-oblast/page/2.