Lead
Italian authorities have raised alarms that weapons from Western supplies to Ukraine are surfacing on the European black market, with organized crime groups seeking to acquire them. Reports from the Italian media, cited by TASS, indicate that hundreds of thousands of weapons have gone missing, and Russian officials and experts say the deliveries are creating unintended consequences for Western donors.
Coverage Comparison
All three reports reviewed come from the Russian state news agency TASS, which presented the story through the lens of Russian official and expert commentary. The first report, published July 29, focuses on a newspaper investigation into missing weapons. The second, from July 30, quotes a Crimean official and the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson. The third, from July 31, features a Russian military expert analyzing the implications for European security.
None of the reports include direct responses from Western governments or Ukrainian authorities, and the perspective is uniformly critical of Western arms deliveries to Kyiv.
Key Claims
800,000 Weapons Missing in Ukraine
According to the Italian newspaper Il Fatto quotidiano, as cited by TASS, approximately 800,000 units of weapons and ammunition have gone missing in Ukraine, with most originating from European military supplies. The paper reported that since 2022, 780,465 pieces of weapons have disappeared or been stolen, including 149,000 in the first five months of this year alone.
The report also cited Palermo Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia telling an anti-mafia commission that most of these weapons end up on the European market, and that European countries providing military aid to Ukraine prefer to hide details of their supplies, making it harder for police to track the flow.
Italian Mafia Seeking Drone Weapons
The ANSA news agency, also cited by TASS, reported that de Lucia said the Italian mafia is attempting to acquire drone weapons that have emerged on the black market during the Ukrainian conflict. The Il Fatto quotidiano report specifically identified Cosa Nostra as the group interested in the missing weapons.
Russian Expert: Arms Deliveries Arm Criminal Groups
Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), told TASS that the transfer of weapons to Ukraine has resulted in the West arming European criminal organizations.
Stepanov said the uncontrolled spread of a black market for weapons leads to those weapons returning to the European market through seaports, providing opportunities to arm criminal groups. He argued that Western military aid to Kyiv has a downside, transforming European organized criminal groups into paramilitary units capable of countering European intelligence agencies and security forces.
Russian Officials: Deliveries Backfire
Vladimir Konstantinov, Speaker of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, told TASS that arms deliveries to Ukraine create problems for Western donors themselves, as weapons may end up in the hands of criminal groups. He said the weapons could "resurface at any location on the globe" because conflict zones are part of arms trafficking chains, and that weapons are often written off as damaged in combat.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in mid-July that the number of crimes committed with illegal weapons in Ukraine surged by more than 40 times over the past few years, according to the TASS report.
Berliner Zeitung Report
Both the second and third TASS reports reference an earlier article by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, which wrote that without proper control, weapons supplied to Ukraine could flow to the European black market. The article reportedly said Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries, raising concerns about insufficient control over supplies.
Perspectives
Italian Prosecutors
Palermo Chief Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia has warned that missing weapons from Ukraine are reaching the European market and attracting the interest of organized crime, including the Cosa Nostra mafia group.
Russian Officials and Experts
Russian officials and experts argue that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine are backfiring, arming criminal groups and undermining European security. They point to the scale of missing weapons and domestic crime increases in Ukraine as evidence of the risks.
Western Donors and Ukraine
No direct responses from Western governments or Ukrainian authorities were included in the reports reviewed.