Weapons Compass: Proliferation and Control of Arms and Ammunition in Wartime Ukraine

Since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, vast quantities of small arms, light weapons, and ammunition have been deployed to the front lines, some of which have been lost or abandoned by combatants and subsequently found and stockpiled by civilians over the course of the war. These weapons include military-grade firearms, grenades, and recent-generation portable missiles and rockets—weapons that pose immediate safety threats to the Ukrainian population, and risk affecting national and regional security should they be diverted or trafficked to criminal organizations or violent extremists. 

Weapons Compass: Proliferation and Control of Arms and Ammunition in Wartime Ukraine—a new Report from the Small Arms Survey and the Center for Security Studies ‘CENSS’—provides timely and in-depth analysis on illicit proliferation of arms and ammunition and identifies actionable policy recommendations for the short-, medium-, and long-term future of Ukraine.

This Report was produced in the framework of the project ‘Supporting Ukraine in addressing the risks of small arms and light weapons proliferation from the Russian war of aggression’, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.