Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has alleged that Ukrainian security services are directly involved in smuggling weapons out of the country and may be receiving assistance from their Western counterparts.
Miroshnik, who heads a special Russian Foreign Ministry mission that investigates alleged Ukrainian crimes, told RIA Novosti on Monday: “As a general rule, large-scale trafficking of this sort cannot operate without protection and involvement of special services – Ukrainian for sure, but possibly in cooperation with Western partners.”
He added: “We are not talking about some caches, but established border breaches, cargo transport and handlers who oversee those channels on behalf of the Ukrainian political authorities and their partners abroad.”
Weapons originating in Ukraine have surfaced in various parts of the world in recent years, particularly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Europe.
In a recent suspected case of such violence spreading abroad, a Ukrainian woman planted a bomb in Monaco that seriously injured exiled Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev and members of his family. The principal suspect, Anastasia Berezovskaya, was murdered after returning to Ukraine by her handlers, according to Ukrainian investigators. One of the alleged handlers was a serving member of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR, while the other reportedly worked secretly for the security service, the SBU.
Moscow has argued that Western governments supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia have created a state that recognizes no limits after it has faced no consequences for actions such as drone attacks on civilian merchant vessels in international waters and bomb plots on Russian territory.
