Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on FT to investigate misinformation about alleged arms smuggling

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called on the Financial Times to conduct an editorial investigation into materials that have signs of disinformation in the interests of russia, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko writes.

Financial Times February 6, 2023 material: Moldova’s PM calls for more EU help to curb Ukraine war smuggling

At the beginning of the article, it is noted that the now ex-prime minister of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilița, told the Financial Times that her country is “seeing an increase” in the smuggling of arms, people and goods from Ukraine against the background of the war. The author reminds that Moldova is not a member of the European Union, but borders Romania, which has been a member of the EU since 2007.

Next, the author immediately outlines the scale of the problem: “Illegal smuggling of arms, people and goods from Ukraine has been a major fear for EU countries since russia’s invasion last February, exacerbated by the vast amount of weapons supplied to the country over the past 11 months and the increased levels of people seeking to leave.”

In response, according to the article, Brussels created a “support hub” in Moldova, trying to track and counter attempts at illegal trade. This initiative, according to Gavrilița, achieved “successful efforts to stop trafficking of arms and people.”

And now we look at the direct quote from the former head of Moldova’s government, which is presented in the article: “We do not want to become a country where security threats grow, or there is increased . . . trafficking or illegal smuggling.” Natalia Gavrilița also says that Moldova needs EU support to “prevent the smuggling network from growing.” A completely legitimate desire of a representative of a country near whose territory there is a war. But does the Moldovan ex-prime minister speak directly about the facts of arms smuggling or its increase? No.

The quotes of the former Prime Minister of Moldova do not correspond to the headline of the Financial Times article. The author of the article also does not provide any evidence of arms smuggling. Moreover, we did not receive any confirmed information or specific facts from the Moldovan side about the supply of contraband weapons from Ukraine.

This article by the Financial Times is yet another piece of misinformation. Its goal is to discredit international military aid to Ukraine. russia is investing numerous resources to prevent the supply of Western weapons to our country against the background of the new offensive of the russian army. It is obvious that the Financial Times article was supposed to increase the fear in the West that the weapons transferred to Ukraine will turn against the Western countries themselves, falling into the hands of criminal elements.

Last year, the same author published a similar piece in which he also manipulated the topic of alleged arms smuggling from Ukraine.

We demand that the Financial Times will immediately conduct an editorial investigation into the circumstances of the appearance of materials that have all the signs of disinformation in the interests of russia.

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