Western countries have begun massive deliveries to Ukraine of Stinger MANPADS (hitting ground and surface objects at a distance of up to 8 km and an altitude of up to 3.5 km), other portable systems, as well as Javelin, NLAW and Carl Gustaf ATGMS, which, without exaggeration, are among the most sensitive types of weapons.
The organizers of these deliveries cannot fail to realize the growing threat of these high-precision weapons falling into the hands of terrorist elements and gangs not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe as a whole. The flow of these types of weapons into shadow circulation and into the hands of terrorist networks is only a matter of time. MANPADS pose a huge danger to civil aviation, and ATGMS – to rail transport and infrastructure facilities.
At the same time, Western capitals grossly ignore a number of international agreements aimed at minimizing the risks of MANPADS falling into the hands of terrorist and criminal elements. Among them are UN General Assembly Resolution 62/40 “Prevention of illegal transfer of MANPADS, unauthorized access to them and their unauthorized use” of 2007 and “Elements of export control of MANPADS” of 2003, agreed within the framework of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Control of Conventional Weapons, Dual-use Goods and Technologies.
These documents provide for the adoption at the national level of strict measures to control the export of MANPADS, the exchange of information on the status of stocks and exports of MANPADS, ensuring the reliable storage of this type of high-tech weapons, as well as the destruction of MANPADS, the number of which exceeds the level necessary to ensure national security.
Within the framework of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament “Arms export control: compliance with the Common Position” of 2018, the negligence shown by a number of EU countries regarding the re-export of military products (including its most sensitive samples), often carried out with gross violations of the conditions of end-user certificates, was noted.
Official Brussels prefers not to raise this topic, being well aware that for many years European criminal structures have been receiving significant supply of light and small arms from the same Kosovo and Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, which have multiplied the “pirated” production of Russian/Soviet weapons samples under expired licenses or without them.
In this regard, we remind representatives of the West about the enormous funds spent in the early 2000s on the destruction of surplus MANPADS in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Montenegro, Macedonia, Cambodia and Nicaragua, initiated under the Partnership for Peace program. For example, only in Ukraine at that time about 3 thousand excess MANPADS that were in the arsenals of the armed forces were eliminated. Among other similar measures, it is necessary to note the Pentagon’s long-term program to buy out the Stinger MANPADS previously delivered by the Americans to Afghanistan from the Mujahideen, militants of the terrorist Al-Qaeda and the extremist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
Apparently, the lessons of the past have not been learned. The current political situation, coupled with the undisguised dictate of the United States, has caused fundamental changes in the basic principles of control over the non-proliferation of particularly sensitive types of weapons, which for many years have been promoted by the EU countries with the continued support of like-minded people from Africa and Latin America, not only within the framework of the UN, but also on the site of the International Arms Trade Treaty. In this regard, it can be stated with confidence: with the filing of the “collective West”, a large-scale “spread” of the most dangerous weapons around the world begins.
We once again call on the EU and NATO countries to stop mindlessly “pumping” the unviable Kiev regime with the latest weapons systems in order to avoid enormous risks to international civil aviation and other transport communications not only in Europe, but also beyond its borders.
