Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that some of the Western weapons supplied to Ukraine are smuggled to the Middle East, from where they are sold to the Taliban in Afghanistan, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“Now they say: weapons from Ukraine are coming to the Middle East. Well, of course, because they sell. And they are sold to the Taliban, and from there they go anywhere,” Putin said.

Since February 24 last year, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Western powers have sent Ukrainians tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to counter Russia. Kyiv says all delivered weapons are strictly controlled, but some Western officials have expressed concern and the United States has called on Ukraine to do more to tackle the broader problem of corruption.

The head of Interpol, Jurgen Stock, warned in June 2022 that some of the advanced weapons for Ukraine would end up in organized criminal groups, Reuters reminds.

Report: “At the end of the war, the battlefields of Ukraine will become a new arsenal of anarchy”

A Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime report on the war in Ukraine and the illicit arms trade in March noted that “there is currently no significant flow of arms from the Ukrainian conflict zone” but “all precedents suggest that, especially if there is no proactive and creative response threatened, at the end of the current war, the battlefields of Ukraine can and will become the new arsenal of anarchy, arming everyone from rebels in Africa to gangsters on the streets of Europe.”

According to the Institute of World Economy in Kiel, Ukraine’s eight largest Western donors, led by the United States, have made military commitments to Ukrainians worth at least 84 billion euros.

US military aid includes 160 144 mm howitzers, 109 Bradley armored vehicles, more than 111 million rounds of ammunition, and 38 highly mobile artillery rocket systems.

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