VIENNA, October 14. /TASS/. NATO's militarization policy and military assistance to Kiev have resulted in an uncontrolled, unprecedented rise in illegal trade in Western weapons, Yulia Zhdanova, head of the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, said.

"The militarization of the NATO bloc and the deployment of weapons to Ukraine have already led to uncontrolled and unprecedented, perhaps in the entire history of wars, illegal trade in Western weapons and military equipment. The illegitimate Kiev regime, closely monitored by Europeans and enjoying the support of the EU, has handed over the illegal smuggling of weapons to Ukrainian and international organized criminal groups. In these ‘gray’ schemes, the key role is played by both the command of the armed forces of Ukraine and the leadership of the national intelligence services," she told a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation. Her statement was made available to TASS.

Zhdanova quoted German experts as saying at a June seminar on the problem of illegal weapons proliferation from Ukraine in EU countries that around 35 million unregistered weapons of various types are in circulation across the bloc.