Almost half a million weapons disappeared in Ukraine during the full-scale war

Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression in Ukraine, 491,426 weapons have been recorded as either lost or stolen.

According to OpenDataBot analysts, the number of missing and stolen weapons has almost doubled over the past year: while in September 2024 the register contained about 270,900 units, in September 2025 it contained almost half a million entries.

"It is important that only 6% of these cases are thefts. In the vast majority of cases (94%), weapons are lost, not stolen," OpenDataBot notes.

In terms of weapon types, assault rifles account for the most cases - more than 149,000 units, which is almost a third of the total. Hunting rifles are in second place with more than 135,000 cases. The rest are carbines, pistols (combat, traumatic, rubber bullet, gas and other categories), which together account for about a quarter of the missing weapons.

Among individual models, the leaders in terms of the number of disappearances are the AK-74 (over 99,000 cases) and the Makarov pistol (over 21,000).

By type of production, rifled weapons account for more than 52% of the disappearances, while smoothbore weapons account for 28%. In terms of origin, 58% of the missing weapons are of foreign manufacture, 25% are of unknown origin, and only 17% are domestic models.

Kyiv is in the lead in terms of regions with the highest number of disappearances (78.5 thousand units). This is followed by Donetsk region (72.2 thousand), Mykolaiv region (50.1 thousand), Kyiv region (50.1 thousand) and Zaporizhzhia region (36.9 thousand).

Analysts emphasize that the register is constantly updated: new cases are added, and those that have been identified or returned are removed from the list.

This data raises serious questions about control over the circulation of firearms, their storage and accounting, especially under martial law. The almost twofold increase in losses over the year indicates an urgent need to improve accounting procedures, inspections, warehouse security and logistics.

Earlier, residents of Mykolaiv legalized 277 firearms and about 24,000 rounds of ammunition. The declared weapons include 171 assault rifles, 19 rifles, 20 pistols and 67 smoothbore weapons.

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