Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, said that some of the Western-made weapons sent to Ukraine have made their way to the Middle East through the illegal market and have been sold to the Taliban.
Putin said that weapons sent to Ukraine are sold to the Taliban and "can be accessed by anyone".
On Friday, in a meeting with members of the country's Civic Chamber in Moscow, the Russian president criticised the military support of the Western countries to Ukraine and the sale of these weapons in black markets.
Since February last year, when Russia invaded militarily on Ukraine, Western countries have been sending weapons worth tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to fight the Russian forces.
Ukraine said that it has tight control over the weapons it receives, but some Western security officials have previously expressed concern about the weapons being sold on illegal markets.
The United States of America asked Ukraine to take more measures to fight corruption in the country.
Last year, the head of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, warned that some advanced weapons sent to Ukraine would end up in the hands of organised crime groups.
In March, a report on the war in Ukraine and the illegal arms trade was published by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime stating that so far, no significant number of weapons have been taken out of Ukraine.
However, the report warned that if the threats are not addressed, when the current war ends, "Ukraine’s battlefields could and will become the new arsenal of anarchy, arming everyone from insurgents in Africa to gangsters in the streets of Europe”.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy report, eight major Western donors, led by the United States of America, have pledged to Ukraine to send at least 84 billion euros in military aid to the country.
