Peace and proliferation: The Russo-Ukrainian war and the illegal arms trade
Crime & Conflict, UKR-Obs
The Observatory of Illicit Markets and the Conflict in Ukraine was established to create an early-warning system to monitor and analyse trends and emerging risks within Ukraine.
In particular, the Observatory examines and provides insight on criminal networks that are being used to fund the war and to avoid sanctions regimes; it analyses and reports on flows from the conflict zone to provide timely, granular analysis in an easily accessible format for key international stakeholders.
Moreover, it provides tools needed to understand criminal networks which will be paramount during the reconstruction phase for donors to understand which acts would be attempting to exploit fundings for pernicious and corrupt ends. At the regional level, the Observatory is already building a sustainable network of local actors, NGOs, academic institutions, government bodies, police, chambers of commerce, civil society and other actors. The collaboration between civil society, development practitioners and other stakeholders are key to dealing with the crime-conflict ensuring that there is scope for monitoring, resilience building and continued responses to emerging threats and changes.