Conflicts & War

Belgium probes whether its weapons were used in Russia

Brussels, Jun 5 (EFE).- Brussels is investigating whether weapons made in Belgium were used by Ukrainian forces on Russian soil, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.

The Washington Post on Saturday published an article in which it alleged that anti-Kremlin fighters who launched a cross-border incursion in the Russian border region of Belgorod in late May were carrying assault rifles made in Belgium by a company called FN Herstal.

“Our defence ministry and its intelligence agencies have started an investigation and are asking for information to determine what has happened exactly,” De Croo said in a radio interview with state broadcaster RTBF.

According to the American newspaper, members of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a Russian nationalist paramilitary unit based in Ukraine, and of the Freedom for Russia Legion, a paramilitary group that opposes Vladimir Putin’s regime, were caught on camera wielding the weapons that were allegedly made in Belgium.

“European weapons are delivered to Ukraine under the condition that they are used on Ukrainian territory with the purpose of defending that territory,” the Belgian PM warned in the interview.

“We have strict controls in place to see that this is the case,” De Croo added.

“We must not get ahead of ourselves here. But we are analysing the situation and we would take this very seriously,” De Croo told the radio station.EFE

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