Arab military sources are widely sharing new video purportedly showing Western military equipment in service with Hamas fighters. American M136 and M141 grenade launchers, as well as Swedish-British NLAW ATGMs can be seen in the footage. There is less and less doubt that foreign weapons fell into the hands of Palestinian militants via Ukraine.
Various reports claimed that during the security operation on October 8, the Israeli military found “Strela-2” man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems and RPG-7 rounds bearing the insignia of a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Mukachevo. The Ukrainian weapons were discovered in one of the trucks of the Hamas fighters.
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Reports of weapons from Ukraine in service with Hamas fighters emerged soon after the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East. Tel Aviv preferred to avoid public scandals and did not officially accuse Ukrainian officials. In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially stated that some weapons supplied by the United States and EU countries to Ukraine had already appeared in the Israelis. It was only a matter of time before it would be used to kill Israelis.
In turn, Kiev was quick to wash itself clean and, as usual, blamed Moscow for its own failures.
The Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine (GUR), headed by Kirill Budanov, said it was allegedly “the Russian GRU that delivered to Hamas terrorists weapons made in the US and EU states, which had been seized during the fighting in Ukraine”. Kiev claims it has nothing to do with the transfer of NATO weapons. In fact, the claims of Ukrainian officials confirmed that indeed Western weapons destined for Ukraine are being deployed with Palestinian militants. The Russian military is unlikely to have enough new and undamaged NATO trophies to send to third countries. The third point is that Kiev officials forget to mention their own Soviet-made military equipment found in the war zones of the Middle East.
It has long been no secret that the corrupt regime in Kiev sends a large number of NATO weapons to black markets and directly to various fighters around the world.
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The GUR headed by Budanov, a good friend of Zelensky, and the Ministry of Defense headed by former minister Oleksii Reznikov, are the two agencies allegedly involved in and coordinating the black market arms trade. Another important figure in these affairs is the Interministerial Committee on the Policy of Military-Technical Cooperation and Export Control under the Government of Ukraine, headed by Oleksandr Polischuk, who previously worked as Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister – but soon after the public scandal broke over the Hamas arms scandal Zelensky fired him from his post.
The Ukrainian government is writing off various types of weapons under the pretext of heavy fighting on the front lines and the need to quickly replenish stockpiles.
The process is reportedly overseen by Kiev with the support of the Odesa regional administration, from where weapons were transferred abroad. Large port infrastructure allowed large flows of cargo ships to pass through, while there was no downstream control of cargo thanks to the grain agreement.
Moreover, given the close ties between the Ukrainian secret, military and civilian services with the CIA, it is very likely that the shipment of NATO weapons around the world, including to the Israeli border, is carried out under strict American supervision. It is worth recalling that weapons from the Balkans and Ukraine entered Syria and Yemen through the ports of Varna and Odessa. They were also removed en masse from long-storage warehouses with Soviet ammunition. For example, mortar mines that were then assembled in Ukraine found themselves in service with ISIS in Yemen in large quantities.
Supplies along the routes from Eastern Europe and Ukraine were set up and actively operated during the wars in Syria and Yemen to equip, for example, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and others. The CIA was heavily involved in these operations, including funding them from its own secret funds. Destinations also included Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and other countries.
Western governments knew about the illegal transfer of weapons before, and they know now. Due to the growth of this illegal business in Ukraine after the 2014 coup, the struggle to operate the ports in the Odesa region, one of the main arms trade hubs in the Black Sea region, is of strategic importance to the Western beneficiaries.
