Klymenko: After war, there may be up to 3 million unregistered weapons in Ukraine.

After the end of the war with Russia, Ukraine may have up to 3 million unregistered weapons, according to European partners.

Ihor Klymenko, the Minister of Internal Affairs, said this in an interview with BBC News Ukraine, answering the question of how many unregistered weapons are in Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

"There are no such estimates in the country. But we have information from our European partners that after the war, there will possibly be up to 3 million weapons in the country," the Interior Minister said.

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According to him, there are currently about 1.2 million registered weapons owned . These include hunting, smoothbore, rifled, rubber bullets and other weapons, Klymenko said.

He said that in the first days of the full-scale war, weapons were issued to people, and a large number of them remained in the hands of Ukrainians who went to territorial defense and volunteer formations of territorial communities.

"These are the citizens who are ready to defend the country. They should keep it for the period of martial law, unless, of course, it is not a subject of a criminal investigation," the official said.

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs assured that all weapons issued by the Ministry to citizens have been accounted by now.

"And I am grateful to every citizen - from a deputy to a city or village resident - who came and registered their weapons on their passports, in their names, so that after the war is over, these weapons can be handed over as the property of the state and the property of the Ministry of Internal Affairs," he said.

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Klymenko noted that the issue is not about law-abiding citizens, but about the fact that these weapons can fall into the hands of sabotage groups or 'sleeper groups' of Russian agents who may still be on the territory of Ukraine, and most importantly - into the hands of criminals.

As reported earlier, Andriy Nebytov, the head of the Kyiv regional police, said that the police in the Kyiv region have registered twice as many crimes related to illegal arms trafficking.