In Ukraine, the population has between 1 and 5 million units of so-called trophy weapons, including assault rifles, grenades and mines. This was stated by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko in an interview within the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on April 12, UNN reports.
How many weapons do we have, as we call them, trophy weapons? It is impossible to count. From a million to 5 million are the figures that are mentioned. It's a fireworks display of numbers. Somewhere we will say that after the war there will be 2-3 million, I think, at least firearms. I mean, these are not short-barreled weapons, these are automatic weapons, these are grenades, these are mines and more serious weapons that are in the hands of our citizens and will be in the hands of our citizens
According to him, law enforcement officers have several functions to counteract.
"The first function today is to prevent these weapons from going abroad, so no weapons have crossed the border as of today. This is primarily the work of the Border Guard Service, this is the work of checkpoints," the minister said.
According to him, there is also preventive work, detection of caches and operational activities.
"Another problem is that people want to sell it, and not always to the military. The machine gun can cost any price: from 1000 UAH, for example, depending on whose hands it fell into, and more. And if it is in a cache, it will never be handed over to a warehouse, for example, to the Armed Forces or the police," Klymenko said.