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UNODC. 2020 ‘Illicit Firearms in Ukraine - Potential Future Sources.’ Illicit Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts, Components and Ammunition to, From and Across the European Union. Regional Report Analysis. Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 1 January

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[Ukraine] has been the scene of an intense illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons. This proliferation is fuelled by the recent armed conflict in the country and the continuing violence. An analysis of seizure data from 2014-2017, for example, indicates that most seizures are made in the so-called 'Anti-Terrorist Operation zone' (ATO), especially in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts where the most intense fighting has taken place.(254)

During the armed conflict many firearms were diverted in various ways from state stockpiles. Other elements that exacerbated the illicit proliferation in Ukraine are a historical legacy of surplus weapons from the Cold War, the lack of a comprehensive legal framework for legal firearms possession in Ukraine and the frequent conversion of replica firearms and blank-firing weapons into live-firing firearms.(255)

Currently most of the illicit firearms trafficking takes place within the country. Yet, fears of illicit firearms trafficking from Ukraine into the European Union have increased. In 2016, for example, a French national was arrested while attempting to smuggle five Kalashnikov-type assault rifles, 5,000 bullets, two anti-tank grenade launchers, detonators, and 125 kg of TNT across the Polish border. The Ukrainian authorities stated this person was planning to carry out terrorist attacks on places of worship, public buildings, and key infrastructure in France a couple of months later.(256)

Between September 2018 and January 2019 about 300 small arms, almost 1,500 light weapons, more than 140,000 rounds of ammunition and over 200kg of explosives were seized by Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement agencies during Joint Operation "Orion", which was coordinated by the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine in cooperation with Europol.(257)

252) Duquet, N. & Goris, K. (2018), Firearms acquisition by terrorists in Europe: Research findings and policy recommendations of Project SAFTE, Brussels: Flemish Peace Institute, page 111.

253) See information on civilian firearms holdings on the webpage of Small Arms Survey (2018).

254) Buscemi, F. et al (2018), "Illicit firearms proliferation in the EU periphery: the case of Ukraine", in: Duquet, N. (Ed.), Triggering terror: Illicit gun markets and firearms acquisition of terrorist networks in Europe, Brussels: Flemish Peace Institute, pages 463-465.

255) Ibid, pages 461-480. 256 Ibid, page 462.

ID: Q15519

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