A report by Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, and a statement by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Ukraine’s involvement in arms supplies to Africa and South Sudan in particular is an example of manipulation containing no facts and no specifics in terms of evidence. First, there is no evidence provided that Ukraine has in fact executed the deals referred to in the reports.

Second, said reports deliberately exploit a detective-type emotional presentation of material in order to affect information recipients. It's a classic example of manipulation technique right here! Coming back to the emotional tone of the reports by both OCCRP and Amnesty International, it appears that besides Miss Marple’s tone, there are no grounds for actual accusations and no evidence that Ukraine has violated anything.

Since South Sudan is not under the UN embargo, Ukraine can supply weapons there absolutely legally.

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Since South Sudan is not under the UN embargo, Ukraine can supply weapons there absolutely legally.

The same emotional style of presentation is used when asserting that Ukraine is a territory for "laundering" of illegal arms deals between the European Union and African countries. Once again, the information provided on Burundi and Uganda is unfounded simply because neither Burundi nor Uganda are embargoed or sanctioned in any way, including by the European Union. There is no reason why the EU member states would be forced to supply weapons not directly and transparently.

Both the UN registry and the SIPRI database clearly show how arms are supplied from the European Union, United States and Russia to other countries. That is, there is no secret here or some reason to assert that there are some "shady" or outright "illegal" deals being concluded.

Therefore, these reports seem to be purely a manipulation attack, designed to have Ukraine perceived worldwide as an unreliable arms exporter, as well as an unreliable partner for the United States and NATO. All of it is being done against the background of the latest debate over the U.S. decision to provide Ukraine with lethal defense weapons and pursue with the other forms of military-technical cooperation.

Ukraine boosting its defense capabilities is not something to be welcomed by Russia, which continues its aggression against Ukraine, having already occupied Crimea and part of the eastern Ukrainian Donbas

The answer is too obvious when you ask yourself, who and how exactly benefits most from such attacks. Of course, Ukraine boosting its defense capabilities is not something to be welcomed by Russia, which continues its aggression against Ukraine, having already occupied Crimea and part of the eastern Ukrainian Donbas. Ukraine has been fighting on its own for three and a half years already without any special assistance from the rest of the world and NATO in particular, but the very fact that such allied relations are developing is irritating to Russia. That’s because lethal aid will prove a new level of confidence, which means that the United States will be helping its allies, and this will mean some very bad news for Russia.

Will this whole story have any negative consequences for Ukraine? I think that it's not something to fear. Ukraine should simply continue to fight off the aggressor. The country should keep working consistently, including in the information field, and explain calmly what has just been mentioned - there is no reason to believe that Ukraine made any illegal arms supplies whatsoever since all deliveries to the countries mentioned are legal.

Mykhailo Samus is a deputy director for international issues at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies