The embargo was introduced by the European bloc after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and fomented war in the country's eastern Donbas region, tvp.info reported.
Yet both the then French President François Hollande and his successor Emmanuel Macron authorised "discreet weapons supplies" to Moscow, the Polish website said, citing a study by an investigative organisation called Disclose.
France’s arms shipments to Russia over that period totalled EUR 152 million and included thermal imaging cameras for tanks, as well as navigation systems and infrared detectors for Russian fighters and attack helicopters, according to tvp.info.
Meanwhile, Germany exported EUR 121.8 million in military equipment to Russia, including rifles, accounting for 35 percent of the EU’s overall arms sales to Moscow, tvp.info reported, quoting another study by the Investigate Europe website.
The government in Berlin has not responded to questions about these transactions from Investigate Europe, tvp.info said.
Flouting the embargo?
According to figures for the period between 2015 and 2020, eight more EU member states sidestepped the embargo, selling arms to Russia: Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Slovakia and Spain, tvp.info wrote.
Anna Kwiecień, an MP with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, told the website that “these weapons are now being used by Russia to kill innocent Ukrainians.”
She demanded an international investigation into the matter, adding that decent people “don’t want such situations to be swept under the carpet,” as cited by tvp.info.
Anna Kwiecień. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
Friday is day 23 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
(pm/gs)
Source: tvp.info, disclose.ngo, investigate-europe.eu