MFA refutes Tucker Carlson's statement that plays into Russian propaganda

Every piece of military equipment delivered to Ukraine by partners is tracked and all supplied weapons are monitored by independent mechanisms, said Heorhiy Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a post on X in response to American TV host Tucker Carlson alleging that Ukraine is selling American weapons systems to criminals.

"And none of the multiple U.S. inspections have ever revealed any misuse," stressed Heorhiy Tykhyi.

Earlier, in an interview with retired Colonel Daniel Davis, Carlson said that the Ukrainian military sells American weapons systems on the black market, including to drug cartels on the US border. He provided no evidence to support the claim.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, wrote in a Telegram post that in this way Carlson “revived” a fake that the Russians promoted in 2022.

He recalled that on August 1, 2022, Russian media and Telegram channels posted a video alleging that Ukrainian weapons systems had been sold to representatives of the Mexican drug cartel Golfo, citing the Mexican TV channel Milenio Televisión.

According to Kovalenko, the news story mentioned dozens of American M136 grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, and Javelin ATGMs that the US had supplied to Ukraine. According to the Mexican channel, the weapons in questions were Javelins, which are available on the “black market” with prices ranging from $20 to $60 thousand.

“However, in the news story, the presenter erroneously called an anti-tank grenade launcher M136 AT4 a 'Javelin'. This disambiguation is important, since the AT4 grenade launcher has been in mass production since the 1980s, and the total number of units produced currently exceeds 600 thousand. The cost of such a grenade launcher ranges from $1,500 to $2,000. The grenade launcher in question was purchased on the 'black market' in North America and was not delivered from Europe or Ukraine,” Kovalenko noted.