MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2022) The European Union is voicing concern over the possibility of an increased firearms trafficking from the territory of Ukraine, intending to enforce preemptive measures, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Monday.
"We have some indications, but we also know by experience that this very often happens that firearms travel around afterwards or during (the conflict). And we know how many weapons there are in Ukraine and, of course, not all of them are in the right hands all the time. And that is why we need to be prepared for protecting ourselves from this," Johansson said in the doorstep remarks of the informal meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels.
She stressed that the bloc is willing to forestall the negative experience of increased firearms smuggling after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
"We know by experience from the the previous war in the former Yugoslavia. We still have problems with firearms being trafficked from there to the organized criminal groups feeding into violence in the criminal networks in the European Union," Johansson said.
To avert the treat of rising arms trafficking "from the very beginning" the EU is intending to closely cooperate with Ukraine and to install a support hub for internal security and border management in Moldova, which will allow an effective exchange of information and border control, she added.
Furthermore, the United Nations is warning about the emergence of new productions of drugs and new roots of drug trafficking in relation to the conflict in Ukraine, therefore, the EU must prepare for it as well, Johansson concluded.
