Inability to track weapons sent to war zone sets stage for unwanted fallout

OTTAWA—As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, the West has been scrambling to fulfil embattled President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s insatiable demands for more heavy weaponry and ammunition. Canada has heeded Zelenskyy’s call, promising an additional $500-million in both lethal and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, in addition to the support we provided prior to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 illegal invasion. The Canadian military arsenal has been severely depleted to equip the Ukraine defenders with anti-tank systems, howitzers, and even light armoured vehicles (LAVs). It will take years to replace those munitions and weapons drawn from active-duty Canadian combat units. However, as Ukraine struggles valiantly to defend itself from the Russian invaders, providing this weaponry to Zelenskyy has given Canadians some pride in the fact we were contributing to the greater good. Then last month, Jürgen Stock, the head of Interpol, released a disturbing report wherein he expressed the agency’s concerns that these untracked weapon deliveries to Ukraine could end up in the hands of criminals or terrorists. “The wide availability of weapons during the current conflict will lead to the proliferation of illicit weapons in the post conflict phase,” Stock told reporters. Interpol fears that pilfered arms and armaments could end up on the European Union’s black market. Stock’s warning echoed an earlier report from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation. As early as April 2022, this agency noted that weapons were already being trafficked from Ukraine to organized crime groups. The warnings from these two law enforcement agencies have prompted several NATO donor nations to discuss better ways to monitor these arms and armaments after they are delivered to Ukraine. The Department of National Defence confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen that Canadian officials are not included in those discussions. There is presently no way for Canada to track the $500-million worth of weaponry that we have shipped into the Ukraine conflict zone. To reassure any uneasy Canadians, National Defence spokesman Dan le Bouthillier told the Citizen that Canada is alert to the danger. “We are monitoring these developments with interest and will leave no stone unturned in our work to ensure the safe delivery and use of military aid,” said Bouthillier. Privately, military sources advised the Citizen that once our weapons cross the Ukraine border there is no way to track them. The “Captain Obvious” cabal will be quick to point out that fears of donated weapons to Ukraine being sold to criminals will only aid the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. That it will. However, we would be moronic to attempt to view this war through a simplistic prism wherein everything Russian is bad and, ergo, everything Ukrainian must be good. These warnings come from both Interpol and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation—not from Russian trolls on social media. No one is suggesting that the West stop shipments of heavy weapons into Ukraine. Given the desperate need the Ukraine military has for such sophisticated munitions, one would think that Zelenskyy’s government would readily agree to outside oversight to track this weaponry. It is not like we don’t know how stockpiles of weapons can easily fall into the wrong hands if not secured. In August 2021, as the Taliban rampaged to an almost bloodless victory over the U.S.-trained and -equipped Afghan government forces, American troops had to abandon an estimated US$18-billion worth of weapons, munitions, and equipment. As a result, the Taliban has acquired the most powerful arsenal in Central Asia. Without a treasury to maintain the massive Afghan standing forces of nearly 400,000 the U.S. had established, the Taliban found themselves in possession of a tremendous surplus of sophisticated arms and armaments. One can only surmise that the sale of these weapons to third parties of dubious intent are now supplementing the Taliban’s income from the sale of illegal narcotics. The collapse of the Afghan army in 2021 was not unprecedented. In 2014, the American-trained and -equipped Iraqi Security Forces fled in the face of the Daesh (a.k.a. ISIS or ISIL) offensive. Rather than fight, the Iraqi army melted away, leaving their vast arsenal of weapons and combat vehicles in the hands of the Islamic extremists. In 2010, the NATO-supported insurgency in Libya led to the eventual overthrow of president Muammar Gadaffi. When NATO failed to secure the vast arsenal it had supplied to the Libyan rebels, that country degenerated into violent anarchy, which persists today. The unsecured weapons of Libya also found their way into the hands of rebels in neighbouring Mali. That conflict also continues to this day. The moral of the story is that we must heed the current warnings of Interpol and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation. Otherwise, it won’t end well, and this time the fallout will be felt in Europe. Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

Inability to track weapons sent to war zone sets stage for unwanted fallout

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Inability to track weapons sent to war zone sets stage for unwanted fallout

There is presently no way for Canada to track the $500-million worth of weaponry that we have shipped into the Ukraine conflict zone.

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