Organized crime thrives worldwide, affecting governance and weakening the advancement of the rule of law and has wide-ranging impacts on peace and security as well as sustainable development. It encompasses, inter alia, illicit trafficking of drugs, firearms, protected species, cultural property, or falsified medical products and, among its most severe manifestations, human trafficking. Involving small and large criminal organizations operating nationally and across borders, trafficking is facilitated by, and incentivizes, corruption. The associated criminal financing also threatens the integrity of funding for development and reconstruction efforts.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Ukraine is providing practical support for Ukraine’s response to address firearms misuse through a programme established with the PJSC Ukrainian Railways in detecting illicit firearms and explosives.
On November 6, 2023, H.E. Mr. Kuninori Matsuda, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine, Mr. Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration(Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine), Mr. Yevhen Liashchenko, Chairman of the Management Board of Ukrainian Railways PJSC , Mr. Andriy Bukin, Head of the South-Western Railway, Mr. Volodymyr Aleksandrov, Executive Director of the Departmental Military Guard branch of Ukrainian Railways PJSC (Railways Security Service) and Ms. Harsheth Virk, Head of Office, UNODC in Ukraine, officially inaugurated a refurbished training classroom at the Ukrainian Railways in Kyiv. In addition, equipment supplied by UNODC including IT equipment, network equipment, walk-through metal detectors, and hand-held metal detectors was officially handed over to the Ukrainian Railways PJSC.
©UNODC
The inauguration was followed by a 3-day training course on the analysis of X-ray images of firearms for 15 operatives from across Ukraine, with the aim of enhancing their ability to detect firearms and explosives in railway stations. The training was based on specialized training developed by the UNODC Global Firearms Programme (GFP) on the identification of firearms and explosives using X-ray technology. Equipment and training support were made possible by a generous contribution of the Government of Japan.
Recognizing the enormous challenges facing the country, the United Nations in Ukraine, has developed the Transitional Framework to support Ukraine in its efforts to strengthen its national systems and cope with the economic and social impact of the Russian invasion. UNODC supports the implementation of the Transitional Framework and works with Ukrainian authorities to detect, investigate, and prosecute instances of illicit arms flows into, out of and within the country in line with the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms,Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, to which Ukraine became a party in 2013.
Further Information
