The fight against arms smuggling in Ukraine: achievements and statistics

After almost two years of brutal war in Ukraine that has affected every inhabitant of the country, Ukrainians steadfastly endure all the hardships – whether it's blackouts or rising food prices – they still hold their ground. However, fatigue from fighting is increasing more and more. Constant shelling and deaths of brothers-in-arms on the frontline have a devastating impact on the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. On top of that, less noticeable thing, but still a problem is maturing against the background of the war: These are firearms-related crimes, which can further aggravate the situation.

The fact is that the longer the conflict rages, the more indifferent military personnel and civilians are to weapons. And this pattern is already leading to serious criminal offenses.

To counteract such crimes, the Criminal Code of Ukraine contains:

• Article 263 "Illegal handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives";

• Article 263-1 "Illegal manufacture, processing or repair of firearms or falsification, illegal removal or alteration of their markings";

• Article 264 "Negligent storage of firearms or ammunition".

The above actions are serious crimes that can subsequently lead to damage to dangerous situations. However, for the most part, they are committed without malicious intent, simply because of the imprudence of the owner of firearms and munitions.

On the other hand, the Criminal Code of Ukraine has a more severe article 262 "Stealing, appropriation or extortion of firearms, ammunition, explosives or radioactive material, or obtaining them by fraud of abuse of office." Criminals who commit crimes under this article pose a much greater danger, not only for the Ukrainians, but also for the world community. Unfortunately, Article 262-related cases have been steadily increasing lately in Ukraine.

For example, just recently, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) reported that law enforcement officers detained two contractors from one of the military units of Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. The arrested tried to sell an arsenal of weapons (more than 60 ARs and machine guns, as well as anti-tank grenade launchers) to representatives of the Dnepropetrovsk organized crime group. They set up a cache on the territory of a private household for the illegal storage of weapons and ammunition.

In October, the SSU reported that three criminals were detained for selling sniper weapons and grenade launchers to criminals. The detainees tried to sell weapons and ammunition, which were found in the war zone in the south and east of Ukraine, to the organized criminal group. Members of illegal arms dealers group were detained in Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv and Transcarpathian regions. Investigators estimated that the criminals could get about 4 million hryvnia (more than 100 thousand dollars) for the sale those weapons.

In general, at least once a month, the SSU reports on the suppression of crimes under "weapons" articles. Unfortunately, there are no publicly available statistics on crimes related to articles 262, 263, 263-1, 264.

However, as it turned out, you can buy quite a lot of information on this topic for relatively little money on the Internet. People in Ukraine are currently experiencing an acute shortage of money, so everything is being sold there now. For example, information about the total number of criminal cases on "weapons articles" cost no more than $50.

Thus, the document entitled "List of criminal offenses under Articles 262, 263, 263-1, 264 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for the period from 02/24/2022 to 07/31/2023" indicates the number of cases filed by regions of the country. The absolute leader in criminal cases is the Dnipropetrovsk region, in which 870 cases have been opened, Kiev is in second place – 745 cases, and Kharkiv is in third place – 641 cases.

In total, 7821 cases were opened on the territory of Ukraine in 523 days (from 02/24/12 to 07/31.23). Most of them (7,307 cases) were initiated under article 263. At the same time, 277 cases were opened under article 262, 218 cases were taken away by 263-1 and a total of 19 cases were registered under article 264.

What is in the hands of "possible" criminals? The answer can be found in the document with information on the seizure of firearms, explosive devices and explosives from illegal trafficking. In the first half of this year alone, 4,618 firearms were seized, of which 1,671 automatic weapons and 626 grenade launchers. In addition, about 1.5 million rounds of ammunition of various calibers, 11 thousand grenades and 1.47 tons of explosives were seized too. The figures for 2023 are surprising, even despite the situation in the country.

It is worth noting that "weapons crimes" and "seized barrels" are recorded not only in the zone of active hostilities, but also in calm and peaceful areas of Ukraine. For example, you can look at the Poltava and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, where 301 and 285 crimes were recorded, respectively. In addition, more than 280 weapons were seized in these areas, which is slightly less than the amount of confiscated weapons in Odessa (219) and Mykolaiv (119) regions, which are already in the frontline zone.

Interestingly, according to the SSU reports, the Ukrainian military sells weapons primarily to various criminal groups in the country, and not to some "islamic terrorists" abroad. Most likely, this is true, because there is more sense in working with local organized crime groups. The primary seller needs to get rid of (sell) his "product" as soon as possible. And who, if not a criminal, knows better how to do it quickly and safely. In turn, representatives of organized criminal groups can already resell weapons to jihadist elements, as well as other representatives of the criminal world abroad.

What conclusions can be drawn from the above?

First, it’s a fact that the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine are really trying to fight the arms trade. However, it is still difficult to say how successful their actions are. Moreover, those reports are official statistic, so it can be redacted for the sake of good-looking numbers, and we don’t know the real situation on the ground.

Secondly, there is a tendency towards increasing of the number of "gun" crimes in the country. At the same time, it remains unclear whether this is due to the increase in crimes or to an improvement in the work of Ukrainian law enforcement officers.

Thirdly, a significant number of crimes occur not only in the frontline regions of the country, but also in the rear of Ukraine.

Thus, the problem with arms trafficking in Ukraine really exists and the Kiev authorities are trying to deal with it. However, the prospect of this problem is currently unclear and will depend heavily on the work of Zelensky's team. And given the lack of success on the fronts and the appearance of the first signs of discord between civil and military authorities (the conflict between Zelensky and Zaluzhny), the situation with Ukrainian weapons may deteriorate dramatically. Following this, the criminal situation in Ukraine and in boarding countries will certainly worsen.