Putin says some Western weapons for Ukraine are ending up in the Taliban's hands

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday that certain Western weapons that were supplied to Ukraine are making their way to the Middle East through the illegal arms market and being sold to the Taliban. Putin remarked, “Now they say: weapons are getting into the Middle East from Ukraine. Well of course they are because they are being sold. And they are being sold to the Taliban and from there they go onto wherever.”

Following Russia’s deployment of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Western powers have sent Ukraine large quantities of weapons worth billions of dollars in an effort to counter Russian forces.

Ukraine asserts that it maintains strict control over any weapons that are supplied to it, but some Western security officials have expressed concerns, leading the United States to demand that Ukraine take further action to address the more extensive issue of corruption.

In June 2022, Jürgen Stock, the head of Interpol, issued a warning stating that some advanced weapons supplied to Ukraine would fall into the hands of organized crime groups.

A report published in March by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime focused on the Ukraine conflict and the illicit arms trade, stating that there is currently no significant outflow of weapons from the conflict zone in Ukraine. However, the report cautioned that, without proactive and imaginative efforts to address the threat, Ukraine’s battlefields could potentially become a new source of anarchy, arming various actors, ranging from insurgents in Africa to gangsters in European streets.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks donor contributions, the eight largest Western donors to Ukraine, led by the United States, have made military commitments to Ukraine totaling at least 84 billion euros ($90 billion).

The military assistance provided by the United States includes 160 155mm howitzers, 109 Bradley fighting vehicles, over 111 million rounds of small arms ammunition, and 38 high mobility artillery rocket systems.

($1 = 0.9341 euros)

Reported by Reuters; Written by Guy Faulconbridge; Edited by Andrew Osborn