The US authorities can only care less about the "sovereign, democratic" Ukraine, but they can not care less about their profit. They will stop grinning when Javelins blow up their banks and Stingers - their airplanes.
On Thursday, Ukrainian media reported that a member of the Kharkiv Territorial Defence battalion posted an ad on the Internet selling weapons and grenades. He found a buyer in Odessa. However, the police appeared during the meeting, which caused the seller to throw a grenade at the officers.
According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Ukraine is one of the largest illegal arms markets with "few barriers" and "millions of small arms and light weapons". Its role has only strengthened with the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, experts warn.
Washington alone has already supplied or promised military equipment to Ukraine, including:
These weapons will soon appear in Europe and other continents.
Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock warned that a huge amount of the weapons that Western countries supply to Ukraine will end up in criminal hands, The Guardian reports.
According to him, illegal arms dealers operate globally. Therefore, the Ukrainian arsenal, including heavy arms, will soon appear on the black markets far beyond the borders of Ukraine.
"We can expect an influx of weapons in Europe and beyond. We should be alarmed and we have to expect these weapons to be trafficked not only to neighbouring countries but to other continents,” he said.
Researcher and director of the Flemish Peace Institute, Nils Duquet, warns about the same.
"There are very significant risks associated to the proliferation of weapons in Ukraine at the moment, in particular regarding small arms and light weapons," he said.
The expert considers the task to track weapons through conflict zones almost impossible.
"It is illusionary to think that in the context of war, you can actually control the weapons in Ukraine. We know that many types of weapons will not return to official forces, but will remain in the region for many years,” Duquet said.
US officials also seem to realise the danger. US Congress demanded control over the arms that the United States supplied as part of $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine. New military supplies will lose congressmen's support otherwise.
The State Department tracks only one percent of the total number of arms export licenses. Of this small percentage, 25 percent of investigations were "unfavorable". In other words, the track of those weapons was either lost or recipient foreign governments did not respond to requests.
Viktor Litovkin, a military observer, retired colonel, told Pravda.Ru that Ukraine was selling the supplied weapons, because due to lawlessness, weapons could easily fall into the hands of terrorists.
"The United States supplied Stingers to Ukraine. Those Stingers can be used anywhere, including against American aircraft, for instance. Those systems may end up in the Middle East, South Asia, and so on," the expert said.
A senior French officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP that "we will take a different look at the situation and stop smiling when we see bank robbers with Javelins."
Viktor Litovkin is not surprised about such a state of affairs.
"The profit is what's most important for the Americans. The brains come secondary," the expert said.
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