Russia says West’s Ukraine weapons are going onto the black market

Reuters:

LONDON, Oct 20 – Russia said on Thursday that the West’s supplies of advanced weapons to Ukraine were finding their way onto the black market and then into the hands of extremist and criminal groups in the Middle East, central Africa and Asia.

Since Russia launched its war with Ukraine on Feb. 24, the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War Two, Western powers have sent Ukraine an array of weapons in an attempt to help forces fighting Russian troops.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said that NATO members had in total sent at least 700 artillery systems, 80,000 missile systems, 800,000 artillery shells and 90 million rounds of ammunition.

“A considerable part of these weapons have already entered, or will soon enter, the black market,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. “Now the world community is facing this.”

She did not say what evidence her assertion was based on.