Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has alleged that Ukrainian security services are directly involved in smuggling weapons out of the country and may be receiving assistance from their Western counterparts.

“As a general rule, large-scale trafficking of this sort cannot operate without protection and involvement of special services – Ukrainian for sure, but possibly in cooperation with Western partners,” Miroshnik, who heads a special Russian Foreign Ministry mission that investigates alleged Ukrainian crimes, told RIA Novosti on Monday.

“We are not talking about some caches, but established border breaches, cargo transport and handlers who oversee those channels on behalf of the Ukrainian political authorities and their partners abroad,” he added.

Weapons originating in Ukraine have surfaced in various parts of the world in recent years, particularly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Europe, Miroshnik said.

In a recent suspected case of such violence spreading abroad, a Ukrainian woman planted a bomb in Monaco that seriously injured exiled Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev and members of his family. The principal suspect, Anastasia Berezovskaya, was murdered after returning to Ukraine by her handlers, according to Ukrainian investigators. One of the alleged handlers was a serving member of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR, while the other reportedly worked secretly for the national security service, the SBU.