You're reading: Ukraine's president denies country's role in illegal weapons trade to Iraq, Afghanistan

KYIV, March 14 – Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma strongly denied Thursday accusations that his country had illegally supplied arms to Iraq. “Ukraine didn’t supply Iraq with any weapons,” Kuchma told journalists in the capital Kyiv. Kuchma’s comments came a day after lawmaker Oleksandr Zhyr told the Ukrainska Pravda Internet newsletter that he had evidence of Kuchma’s alleged involvement in a dlrs 100 million arms trade deal with Iraqi representatives. Zhyr said he had a recorded conversation between Kuchma and Valery Malev, head of the Ukrspetsexport state arms export company, backing up his accusations, according to the newsletter. Malev was killed in a car accident last week, four days after the presidential administration received a report about the recording, Zhyr said. Officials denied any political link in Malev’s death. Kuchma called Zhyr’s statement “gibberish.” He denied that Iraq uses components of Ukrainian-made air defense systems, and denied news reports that Ukrainian officials sold arms to the Taliban militia when it ruled Afghanistan.

Kuchma claimed the accusations were an attempt by foreign competitors on world weapons markets to damage Ukraine’s reputation. He also suggested they could be linked to the campaign for parliamentary elections March 31. “Today there is such tight control over the arms trade that some politicians’ remarks about Ukraine’s involvement in illegal arms trading appear absurd,” Kuchma said. “Please, tell me: How could we transport the arms there?”

Reports about Ukraine’s role in illegal arms trading have been mounting since January. The parliament appealed to prosecutors to investigate the activities of top defense and security official Yevhen Marchuk, former security service chief Leonid Derkach and his son Andriy, a lawmaker, as a result of the reports. Marchuk has said that allegations of his involvement were aimed at discrediting him and the security service.