Weapons that have been missing in Ukraine since the beginning of 2022 have ended up on the European black market.

Approximately 800,000 weapons and ammunition went missing in Ukraine and subsequently ended up on the European black market. This was reported on July 29 by the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

"The restoration of a "high-quality arsenal" is partly due to weapons stolen from the Russian-Ukrainian front, where almost 800,000 units have disappeared in four years. This is exactly what the Cosa Nostra militants are doing," the article says.

According to the newspaper, 780,465 weapons have been missing or stolen since 2022, 149,000 of them in the first five months of 2026 alone. Most of this arsenal is European military supplies.

Palermo Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia warned in a report by the anti-mafia commission that a significant part of the weapons are entering the European market and the Italian mafia Cosa Nostra is showing interest in them.

The publication notes that European states providing military assistance to Ukraine prefer not to disclose the details of supplies, which makes it difficult for police control.

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The chief prosecutor of the Palermo region, Maurizio de Lucia, on July 28, during a speech before the parliamentary commission on combating the mafia, said that Italian organized crime was trying to acquire drones similar to those used in Ukraine. The prosecutor claims that the mafia is interested in modern weapons that appeared on the black market during the conflict.