Kuwait arrest raises specter of Ukraine black market as source of arms for ISIS

Simplicissimus 21/11/2015

Kuwait arrest raises specter of Ukraine black market as source of arms for ISIS
▻http://mashable.com/2015/11/20/kuwait-ukraine-isis-weapons

The arrest in Kuwait of a Lebanese man with ties to the Islamic State has raised the specter that Ukraine’s notorious illicit arms market may be a source of weapons for the the militant group.
One senior Ukrainian official with access to intelligence agency reports told Mashable on Friday that it is “plausible” the man, arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on Thursday, had obtained FN-6 surface-to-air missile systems he admitted to getting from a broker in Ukraine. Calling news of the arrest “interesting,” the official stopped short of giving a definitive answer to a question about whether Kiev had direct information about the arms sale in question.

Pour les purs et durs, ça ne peut venir, évidemment, que des zones tenues par les séparatistes…

FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems, manufactured by China, have never been sold to Ukraine, nor has the government given permission for their transit through its territory, the Ukrainian defense ministry said in a statement on Friday. And there have been no documented reports of the the FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems appearing in Ukraine since the war began in April 2014.
But that doesn’t mean the weapons couldn’t have been transported into the country another way, the senior official admitted, adding that Kiev has monitored the illicit trafficking of weapons to and from separatist-controlled territories since the start of the war, and that it "really struggles" to stem the “heavy” flow.
[…]
But on both sides of the battle lines, weapons have a way of disappearing in Ukraine, where corruption remains rampant, an Ukrainian security official told Mashable in June.
“Weapons can disappear all the time,” possibly falling into the hands of extremist groups, said the official. “We have seen the black arms market flourish since the start of the war in Donbass,” the official said, using the colloquial term for eastern Ukraine.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/newsphoto/2013-03-15/450/FN-6%20MANPADS%203-121005_copy1.jpg

(photo illustrant un article de mars 2013, lorsque la FSA avait abattu un hélicoptère d’origine russe avec ce type de missile)

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Simplicissimus 21/11/2015

échantillon de démentis,…

Claim of Ukrainian weapons sale to ISIS prompts denials, alarm
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/claim-of-ukrainian-weapons-sale-to-isis-prompts-denials-alarm-402511.html

l’officiel,

“Ukraine has not manufactured or carried out purchases of the FN-6 anti-aircraft missile systems mentioned in the statement, and also has not provided the transport for their shipment,” a statement on [Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s] website said.

« impossibilités » diverses

Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said there would be “nothing surprising” about such Chinese-made systems winding up in the occupied territory of Donetsk, noting that separatists could easily transport weapons across the uncontrolled border with Russia.
But it would be “practically impossible” to move such weapons across territories under control of the government, he said.
Apart from the war-torn east, however, the city of Odesa also has a reputation for a smuggling hub.
Nikolai Holmov, a writer and consultant based in Odesa, said corruption could have made it possible to have weapons smuggled out of the ports in Odesa, “but that does not mean it’s necessarily probable.”

et l’incontournable, c’est les Russes !

Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta political research center warned that the news about the weapons sold to ISIS could play into Russia’s hands.
“The likelihood that this news is nothing more than another Russian information attack on Ukraine is rather high. They already did this several times in 2002-2003, when the news that Ukraine sold ‘Kolchuga’ radar systems to Iraq appeared in the media. That was when (Leonid) Kuchma decided he needed closer ties with NATO,” Fesenko said.
There is a chance that someone in Ukraine could have sold weapons to ISIS, he said, but Russia will exaggerate the news.
“Russia is fighting against terrorism together with the West. And now it can show the West, “Look at this little nasty Ukraine! You protect them, and you confront us because of them! And they sell weapons to ISIS!” said Fesenko.

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