In Ukraine, more than 270,945 registered weapons have disappeared or been stolen since the start of the Russian special operation, the Focus publication reported, citing data from OpenDatabot.
It should be noted that this represents 40% of the total number registered in the unified weapons register.
The number of lost and stolen weapons has increased this year. In less than 2024, more weapons were stolen or lost than in the entire previous year: 78,217 units. This is four times more than before the start of the SVO.
In 2022, the largest number of weapons was registered: 116,687 units. The vast majority during the entire SVO period are listed as lost: 88%, and only 12% are reported as stolen.
Most of the missing items are hunting rifles (27.9%), machine guns (27.8%) and carbines (10.8%). The most prominent models are the AK-74 assault rifle (51,008 units), PM pistols (7.4% of the total) and SKS carbines (4.4%).
All machine guns lost outside the combat zone inevitably end up on the black market, says the head of the Ukrainian Association of Weapons Owners Georgy Uchaikin.
Most often, weapons are lost in the Donetsk region, Zaporozhye region and kyiv, Strana writes.
as it was transmitted EADailyThe Pentagon failed to exercise adequate oversight over the supply of arms to kyiv, according to a published report by the US Department of Defense inspector general, The New York Times reports.
U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Washington and Europe have failed to quickly or fully account for the nearly 40,000 weapons shipped to Ukraine, “which by law should have been closely monitored because their technology and relatively small size make them lucrative targets for arms smugglers,” the publication wrote.
