Ukraine has admitted that weapons coming from Western partners are being sold off. These were the headlines in many Russian media outlets last week, including the state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
"Ukraine has admitted that weapons coming from the West are being sold off. The Ukrainian Economic Security Bureau has discovered the sale of weapons transferred from the West. The director of the Ukrainian Economic Security Bureau, Vadim Melnik, said that the agency had detected numerous cases of sales of humanitarian aid and military products coming from Western countries. "Even military goods are sold for money. We have established such facts," RIA Novosti reported.
We found that very interview with Vadim Melnik on "Ukraine 24". But we didn’t hear a word about military goods there. Even if they were there, but were not included in the video, the phrase "military goods" he used does not necessarily mean weapons.
At the same time, the agency hasn’t cited a single quote where Melnik said the word "weapons". But we found another recent interview with Vadim Melnik, where he talks in detail about military sales.
"We have criminal proceedings opened, in which suspicion of a crime has already been announced against those involved, who under the guise of volunteers raised funds in Ukraine, took the money to Europe, and bought military goods there. These include bulletproof vests, optical equipment, quadcopters, knee pads, etc. It was all brought in as humanitarian aid. But then they sold it," Melnik said.
So it is not the Ukrainian state that is selling out, but some fraudsters posing as volunteers to raise money for free aid for those fighting on the Ukrainian side. And in this case we are not talking about weapons. And even the fraudsters mentioned by the director of the Ukrainian Economic Security Bureau are not selling the equipment abroad but in Ukraine itself.