The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, called on Western countries to curb Russia's ability to produce weapons at a time when Moscow continues to receive foreign components for this purpose.
He made this statement on Twitter.
"Ukraine would require less assistance and would lose fewer lives if all of the murky schemes and sanction evasion loopholes were thoroughly tracked down and completely closed," said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kuleba provided data that up to 95% of critical foreign components found in Russian weapons destroyed in Ukraine originate from Western countries.
He clarified that these are not actions of governments but rather private firms, as the exports going to Russia are not necessarily military goods but also dual-use products, civilian products, and household appliances.
"Whatever they are, they end up flying into Ukraine to commit war crimes, kill people, and destroy critical infrastructure," emphasized Kuleba.
The Minister pointed out that the West has the best financial intelligence, experts, and specialized agencies capable of tracking such schemes and disrupting them.
"A lion’s share of responsibility lies with the companies themselves: they must control the end-users of the goods they sell abroad and make sure that their spare parts do not end up in weapons killing people," said Kuleba.
He concluded that halting the supply of relevant components to Russia requires massive, coordinated efforts from both the private and public sectors, which would save the lives of many civilians in Ukraine and disable Putin's war machine.
