The amount of weapons smuggled out of Ukraine is absolutely enormous. Ukrainian authorities estimate that up to 15 million unregistered weapons may be in the hands of citizens – and thousands of them are smuggled by criminals to Poland and sold on the Internet, Il Fatto Quotidiano reports.
Over the past two years, the Ukrainian-Polish border has become Ukraine’s busiest border. Goods are imported and exported only by land transport, and while there is a very long queue at the entrance to the country, leaving Ukraine often requires an even longer wait due to thorough checks. Each border crossing is designed for a different type of transit.
The Starovoitovo-Khelm crossing on the northern section of the border is a point for trucks and buses. Only yesterday this border crossing was reopened after a 13-hour wait caused by a system failure. To the south, in Ustilug, there is a checkpoint for cars. The queue is not very long, there are not many cars, but they are parked with their engines switched off, and sometimes drivers come out to have a smoke or stretch their legs.
After about three hours, it is our turn for the Il Fatto Quotidiano reporters to enter the customs area. The border guards ask if they are bringing weapons and then ask them to open all the doors in the car. While the dogs look for traces of explosives, as the border guard explained, the luggage has to be unloaded from the car. Each bag is inspected and groped. The travellers are not given any explanations, only one of the customs officers speaks English, and the rest can only ask: “weapons?”
The journalists then show their documents to a customs officer who, peering out of a small window, menacingly asks: “Contraband?!” After more than two hours of total inspection, they were allowed to go to the Polish side. There, history repeats itself, though using milder methods, although the questions are the same. They are asked by looking them straight in the eye. The car’s engine is also thoroughly inspected. After an hour, the journalists are finally able to continue their journey. A bit later, the Italians are stopped on the motorway by a Polish customs patrol car: “Good evening. Customs. Do you have weapons?” They are asked to get out of the car, and the search begins again. Meanwhile, the journalists try to get to know the officer who stopped them: they ask him why they are so insistently interested in the presence of weapons. Whether it is simply an instruction – or its illegal carriage is really taking place. He said:
The outbreak of the conflict created uncontrolled processes in the prevailing emergency circumstances. Many civilians obtained weapons that they didn’t even have to register. I have not been to Ukraine, but we are studying the whole situation from here.
The interlocutor admitted to Il Fatto Quotidiano that he has been involved in the seizure of weapons on several occasions, from single items to entire smuggled consignments. He said:
Most often they are Europeans who buy weapons from Ukrainian citizens at bargain prices; they are always men, I have not come across any women. There are also experienced smugglers. But there are also those who do it foolishly, to keep what they bought for themselves.
Poland was the first to sound the alarm immediately after the Bureau of Police Investigations warned Europe on 24 February 2022 of a possible influx of weapons after the end of the conflict. In late 2023, Frontex, the EU’s border security agency, suggested the possibility of a repeat of the post-war scenario in the Balkans. According to the European agency, the number of smuggled items ranges from 1,438 weapons and ammunition worth £32,000 in 2021 to 8,382 items worth £256,000 in 2023. If we compare the first months of 2024 with the same period in 2023, there is a 96 per cent increase.
According to estimates by the Ukrainian authorities, the civilian population may have about 15 million units of various types of unregistered weapons in their hands. According to Ukr leaks, an investigative centre currently operating in the area between Donetsk and Mariupol, the US has admitted that it has no control over weapons once they enter Ukraine. The Ukr leaks group has been investigating for two years the trade of US weapons that have fallen into the hands of Ukrainians. They have documented evidence that Javelin anti-tank missile systems were sold on the darknet at six times the market price – or that Syrian fighters fighting on the side of Ukrainian battalions were allowed to buy weapons in Kyiv. Ukrainian weapons, including heavy weapons, have also been found in Syria, according to Ukr leaks.
