There are 2 to 5 million unregistered weapons “walking around” in Ukraine: what to do about it and how to make Ukrainians return them to the state
30 August 2024 20:54
ANALYSIS FROM 
Today, Deputy Interior Minister Bohdan Drapyatiy said on the air of the national telethon that according to European partners, Ukrainians may have from 2 to 5 million undeclared weapons on their hands. It is extremely difficult to give exact figures, because there is no separate methodology for such calculations.
In an exclusive comment "Komersant Ukrainian" member of the parliamentary Committee on national security, defence and intelligence Fyodor Venislavsky said – we are really talking about millions of weapons.
“It is difficult to objectively count the number of weapons that Ukrainians have on their hands now. I think that we are really talking about millions of weapons, given that in the first days of the war a lot of weapons were distributed to volunteer formations of territorial communities and they were not all handed over and properly accounted for.
There are also a lot of trophy weapons that fighters bring with them during the fighting. And Ukrainian citizens find weapons when they are in combat zones. Undoubtedly, the issue of legalisation of these weapons is extremely relevant,” Venislavskyy said.
In his opinion, law to improve the procedure for obtaining, declaring and handling firearms, which was recently passed by the parliament and will come into force in November this year, will help to bring order to the accounting of weapons held by citizens. However, whether Ukrainians will be willing to voluntarily declare these weapons is not known.
“I am convinced that that law is very necessary and it will fulfil the mission we put on it. However, whether Ukrainian citizens will be ready to declare or not is an open question. I think that if at the same time with the provision of the possibility of declaration will be raised and responsibility for the illegal handling of weapons or / or with unregistered weapons, it will have the desired effect,” – said the MP and clarified that now any bills to increase responsibility for the illegal handling of weapons is too early to consider.
“Now to consider such bills – irrelevant, it should be done after we give citizens the opportunity to legalise it, only then we can talk about increasing responsibility for those who will have illegal firearms,” – summed up Fedor Venislavsky.
The law, which will give civilians the right to declare weapons, ammunition and trophy weapons provides that within one month, civilians who have found weapons or weapons without appropriate permits must apply to the National Police and declare all weapons.
After 25 December, a citizen who finds a weapon must immediately inform the NPA authorities of the find by calling 102 or 112 and hand over the weapon to the police for declaration if he or she wishes to keep it.
Author – Alena Kaplina
