KIEV, May 18. /TASS/. The Ukrainian capital Kiev has lots of stockpiles of illegal weapons which are brought there by troops from the military operation zone in the country’s east, experts told the Obozrevatel news portal on Monday, adding that the situation was "spiraling out of control."
"Purchasing weapons in the capital today is as easy today as buying drugs or hiring a prostitute, these are the same things already," the chairman of a supervisory council of Ukraine’s Gun Owners Association, Georgy Uchaykin, said.
Thousands of pieces of weapons are seized in Ukraine daily and taking into consideration this amount, many of them reach the black market, the expert said. The Ukrainian state is not controlling the situation and the only way out is to legalize its purchase, he said.
"The amounts will not decline, but the guns will go through the law enforcement agencies database," Uchaykin said. The legalization could help in future to identify the owner of weapons in case if a crime is committed, he added.
Back in 2007, experts of Switzerland’s Small Arms Survey research project estimated that there were some 3.1 million unregistered guns and rifles in Ukraine. Today, this amount has grown to at least 4.5 million, the expert said.
According to experts, a rifle on the black market in the country costs some $400 or $500, and the price of a gun reaches some $100 or $150. Human rights activist Yaroslav Dunayev said people coming back from the military operation zone in Donbass were the main channel of the weapons inflow.
No comments :
Post a Comment