The West believes that weapons supplied to Ukrainian troops end up on the black market, but their media is silent about this, said American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh.

Months after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, according to the journalist, there were huge concerns, including about the resale of man-portable elite missile systems that are capable of shooting down planes at a considerable height.

“This caused serious concern. About six months ago <…> CBS released material, which then had to be withdrawn, ”he said in an interview with RT on April 23.

Hersh added that even at an early stage of the conflict, Poland, Romania and other bordering countries were «flooded with weapons» supplied by the West to Kyiv. He pointed out that «various commanders» — often not generals, but colonels and others — received shipments of weapons and personally resold or threw them on the black market.

Earlier, on April 13, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that the United States would continue to provide Ukraine with all the necessary support for the conduct of hostilities.

Prior to this, in December last year, military expert Peter Suchiu wrote in an article for 19FortyFive that military equipment that Western countries supply to Ukraine will surface on the black market in other parts of the world. He noted that with such a volume of weapons imports, it is difficult to track the end point of their delivery.

On November 2, it became known that weapons supplied by Western countries to Kyiv appeared on the black markets of Europe. It was clarified that in the countries of Northern Europe, Finnish weapons were also noticed on illegal trading floors, which had previously been transferred to the Ukrainian army.

In October, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, pointed out that the supplied weapons are on the black market, and their monthly smuggling turnover reaches $1 billion.