Russian propagandists on anonymous telegram channels and in the media claim that the weapons transferred from Western partners to Ukraine ended up in the hands of European terrorists. Referring to the American ultra-right conspiracy portal Breitbart, they report that the police in Northern Ireland allegedly confiscated these weapons from two radicals of the New Irish Republican Army. This is manipulation.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that on September 9, during a preventive counter-terrorism operation, the police actually confiscated several grenades and explosives from several members of the organization. The New IRA has been recognized as terrorist in the UK and the USA, and its members advocate continuing the armed struggle for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) into one state. However, the weapons that were confiscated from them are not Western-style weapons transferred to Ukraine as part of military assistance. The radicals were found to have a new type of grenade, which is used exclusively by the Russian army. StopFake analysts note that although the investigation does not exclude the possibility that these weapons fell into the hands of radicals from the front line in Ukraine, it is currently unknown how exactly this happened.

Using this manipulation, Russia wants to undermine its partners’ trust in Ukraine. They say that the weapons provided by Western states are sold by Ukraine as smugglers, so there is no need to provide them. Russian propagandists have repeatedly manipulated the topic of the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine, as Media Detector has already written about.