A Ukrainian presidential aide on Thursday called on lawmakers to establish a monitoring committee that would oversee weapons received by Ukraine from its Western allies to fight Russia’s invasion.
The proposal comes after Brussels raised concern about the threat of arms being smuggled out of war-roiled Ukraine to equip crime gangs in Europe.
“Parliament, as a legislative power, should be involved in the control of Allied defense assistance. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible under martial law,” the head of the Ukrainian presidency Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
He said all arms supplied by the West are “registered and sent to the front of the war.”
The monitoring committee would “deal with the preparation and consideration of issues related to the control of the use of weapons received from our partners,” Yermak said.
“Transparency is the best recipe against Russian manipulation and fakes,” he added.
This week, the European Union said it was creating a hub in Moldova to battle organized crime, particularly arms smuggling from neighboring Ukraine.
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Kyiv has said it closely monitors the weapons it receives from Western partners and that oversight of those deliveries was a “priority” for the government.
It has also accused Russia of spreading propaganda about the proliferation of illegal weapons smuggling.
Small arms have been increasingly available in Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow-backed rebels broke away from Kyiv in two eastern statelets, spurring an armed conflict with Ukraine’s army.
