Ukraine’s Gun Laws: Did They Save the Country?

By Andrew Haftkowycz

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.[1] As helicopter, artillery, and tank battalions descended on three fronts, the capital city of Kyiv quickly repelled the initial air and tank campaign.[2] On the morning of the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, “We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.”[3] Zelensky’s now famous tweet raises significant questions across the western world: what is the right amount of firearms tolerated to allow citizens to protect themselves?[4]

American state and local governments have actively pursued means to send armaments to the Ukrainian people.[5]  In 2022, the City of Miami passed a gun buyback resolution to ship firearms to Ukraine.[6] In June 2023, the Phoenix City Council unanimously approved a plan allowing 500 to 600 firearms to be transferred to a private company that will then transport the weapons to Ukrainian police forces.[7]

The international gun debate has been a hot topic globally, with the United States taking center-stage as the most pro-gun country in the world.[8] However, sovereign nations’ gun laws vary in strictness throughout the globe. [9] In Japan, gun laws are some of the strictest internationally, and even under the few civilian ownership exceptions, the police require an annual inspection of the firearm and a mental and drug test for licensure.[10] In Canada, guns are differentiated between prohibited (most handguns, AK-style assault rifles), restricted (some handguns, and semi-automatic rifles), and regulated (regular rifles and some military shotguns and rifles).[11] In Switzerland, all militia men (who are required to complete military service) can keep their issued firearms for personal usage following military discharge (though automatic rifles are generally prohibited for civilian usage).[12]  Additionally, in China, guns are almost exclusively maintained by government agents, with the only exceptions for civilian usage being for shooting competitions, herdsmen in the countryside, and those working with wildlife.[13]

The War in Ukraine caused the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to enact martial law.[14] This military authorization has affected many legal frameworks around civilian life but particularly around civilian defensive capabilities.[15] As of March 18, 2022, the government has extended civilian and commercial gun permits’ validity throughout the period of martial law.[16] The amendment No. 195 of March 18, 2022 establishes that “during the period of martial law in Ukraine, the validity period of permits. . . is extended for a period of up to 10 days after the termination or cancellation of martial law in Ukraine in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs cases.”[17] The amendment covers “manufacture, acquisition, storage, accounting, transportation and use of firearms, . . . devices of domestic production for firing cartridges, . . .  as well as ammunition for weapons, main parts of weapons and explosive materials,” among other firearms uses.[18] The amendment also mandates statutory authorization to arm paramilitary organizations with “carbines, pistols and revolvers according to the norms of weapons and military supplies for them.”[19]

Even before martial law, Ukraine’s government recognized the legitimate self-defensive need for Ukrainians to carry firearms.[20] On February 23, 2022 (the day before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military), the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine read the first draft of a law authorizing Ukrainians to carry firearms and act in self-defense.[21] The Ukrainian government’s distribution of tens of thousands of arms to civilians was proof that “Ukrainian citizens could handle arms.”[22]

“The Beautiful Lady Won’t Endure It” – A Mural painted on the side of a building in Rivne, Ukraine by Konstantin Kachanovsky. Courtesy to Tiara Azimova, Art as Protest—and Therapy—in War-Ravaged Ukraine, Ms. Magazine.

“Throughout much of the 20th century, gun ownership in Ukraine was strictly limited by the Soviet authorities.”[23] However, Ukrainians have long been amassing civilian weapons stockpiles before the 2022 invasion.[24]  Since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, “as many as 5 million illegal guns” were identified as of 2018.[25] That number has expanded chimerically through bona fide and illicit means since the all-out war with Russia commencing in 2022.[26] One factor explaining Ukraine’s weapons-stockpiling behavior is the cultural memory of Ukrainian history.[27] “Teaching Ukrainians to trust law enforcement may take a full generation . . . [a]fter the Holodomor (the 1930s man-made famine) and the USSR, many people depend only on themselves” to police their communities.[28]

Ukraine is an interesting pariah among much of the western world because state-of-the-art firearms and looser restrictions has shifted western public opinion in favor of gun restrictions.[29] However, Ukrainians in the 2020s are unique in their territorial nuance. Due to foreign diplomacy and treaty agreements, they are a culture targeted by a powerful empire, yet they require multifarious legal loopholes and grassroots efforts to defend themselves.[30]  Without western support, Ukraine may have been defeated under the Russian war campaigns of the Twenty-First Century.[31]   

However, critics of gun reform policy point to pro citizen-carry-firearm policies to correlate with less violent crime.[32] Policy makers from the 1990s have regretted the disarmament of Ukraine in the early 1990s, believing Russia would never have “pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons.” [33]

In Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, stated that street crime rates have fallen precipitously in 2023.[34] Interestingly, Klymenko credits the substantial consolidation of police and law enforcement forces with creating the conditions necessary for armed citizens to safeguard the metropolitan area of Kyiv. [35] Police were able “to take complete control of the street and street crime in the first days of the war . . . [allowing] the government [to] urge Ukrainians to take up arms and distribute thousands of rifles and shotguns to civilian defense forces.”[36]

While Ukraine endeavors to gain accession into the European Union (EU), immediate compliance with EU countries’ strict gun control policy could endanger Ukraine’s ability to repel Russia’s advances.[37] There is no “one-size-fits-all” policy that would serve both Ukraine (a war-torn country currently under martial law) and the EU (a centralized political economic union supporting Ukrainian defense efforts from afar).[38] Therefore, Ukraine is better off maintaining a a decentralized federalist approach to gun laws until the War in Ukraine has concluded, after which Ukraine can begin negotiations on EU compliance for EU Membership accession.[39] 

While the War in Ukraine rages on, the evolution of Ukraine’s policies on gun reform should reflect the sentiments of its constituents and its democracy.[40] If Ukraine is to survive as an independent democracy, it should be allowed to defend itself only to the extent authorized by its own people under a decentralized federalist model.[41]

[1] See Jessie Yeung et. al., Russia attacks Ukraine, CNN (Feb. 24, 2022) https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/h_d115a65e9b6348752422ad427fa83b95.

[2] @ZelenskyyUa, Twitter, (Feb. 24, 2022, 4:54 AM) https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496785547594924032?lang=en.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Kit Silavong, Complaint Filed Against City of Phoenix Over Ukraine Gun Transfer, AZ Family (Aug. 21, 2023) https://www.azfamily.com/2023/08/21/complaint-filed-against-city-phoenix-over-ukraine-gun-transfer/.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] See e.g. Brief of Amici Curiae Professors of Second Amendment Law, Weld County, Colorado, et. al. in Support of Petitioners, NY State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen, 142 S Ct 2111 (2022) (No. 20-843) (arguing that many United States citizens’ claims authorize the population to regularly defend the country under a constitutional right to bear arms privately and personally, as well as claiming the right as the foundation of the nation’s scheme of liberty through the historic revolutionary war which won the country’s independence from Great Britain); see also U.S. Const. amend. II (stating “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”).

[9] German Lopez, How Gun Control Works in America, Compared With 4 Other Rich Countries, Vox (Mar. 14, 2018), https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/12/4/9850572/gun-control-us-japan-switzerland-uk-canada (stating criminal penalties are so strict that even some yakuza criminal organizations prohibit its members from carrying firearms based on the liabilities.).

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Yuan Yanchao, Can You Carry a Gun in China? - China Law in One Minute, CJO (Nov. 21, 2020)  https://www.chinajusticeobserver.com/a/can-you-carry-a-gun-in-china.

[14] Anna Pruchnicka, Ukraine Extends Martial Law, Ruling Out October Parliament Vote, Reuters (July 27, 2023)  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-extends-martial-law-ruling-out-october-parliament-vote-2023-07-27/.

[15] Laws of Ukraine. Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine No. 622:  Про затвердження Інструкції про порядок виготовлення, придбання, зберігання, обліку, перевезення та використання вогнепальної, пневматичної, холодної і охолощеної зброї, пристроїв вітчизняного виробництва для відстрілу патронів, споряджених гумовими чи аналогічними за своїми властивостями метальними снарядами несмертельної дії, та патронів до них, а також боєприпасів до зброї, основних частин зброї та вибухових матеріалів (On the approval of the Instructions on the procedure for the manufacture, acquisition, storage, accounting, transportation and use of firearms, pneumatic, cold and cooled weapons, devices of domestic production for firing cartridges, equipped with rubber or metal projectiles with similar properties of non-lethal action, and cartridges for them, and also ammunition for weapons, main parts of weapons and explosive materials). Adopted on 1998-10-07. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0637-98#Text.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] Pavel Polityuk, Ukraine Mps Vote to Give Permission for Civilians to Carry Firearms, Reuters (Feb. 23, 2022) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-mps-vote-give-permission-civilians-carry-firearms-2022-02-23/.

[21] Id. 

[22] Volodymyr Verbyany & Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Ukrainians Should Own More Guns After War Ends, Law Chief Says, Bloomberg (June. 21, 2022) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-21/ukraine-gun-laws-top-official-calls-for-looser-restrictions-after-war?in_source=embedded-checkout-banner.

[23] Josh Kovensky & Matthew Kupfer, Activists Seek Legalization if Gun Ownership in Nation, Kyiv Post (Apr. 13, 2018) https://www.kyivpost.com/post/9590.

[24] Id.

[25] Id. 

[26] See Liam O'Donoghue, Ukraine War Guns Likely to End Up on UK Streets, Says Weapons Expert, BBC News (Aug. 29, 2023) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-65063312; see also Brad Dress, US Announces New Ukraine Security Package, The Hill (Aug. 29, 2023) https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4177107-us-announces-new-ukraine-security-package/.

[27] Kovensky, supra note 23.

[28] Id.

[29] C.f. Beth LeBlanc & Craig Mauger, Michigan Senate Will Be 'Taking Action Soon' on Gun Legislation After MSU Shooting, Majority Leader Says, Detroit News (Feb. 14, 2023) https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/michigan/2023/02/14/gov-whitmer-on-msu-shooting-we-cannot-accept-living-like-this/69901426007/; see also Gun Violence Widely Viewed as a Major – and Growing – National Problem, Pew Research Center (Jun. 28, 2023) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/06/28/gun-violence-widely-viewed-as-a-major-and-growing-national-problem/ (showing a growing majority of Americans viewing gun violence as a “major problem.”).

[30] See Silavong supra note 5.

[31] Id.

[32] Dylan Matthews, Gun Homicides (Like All Homicides) are Down from the 1980s/1990s, Vox (Nov. 14, 2018) https://www.vox.com/2015/10/1/18000474/gun-homicides-decline.

[33] Lawrence Richard, Bill Clinton Accidentally Gives Pro-Second Amendment Argument During Interview on Russia-Ukraine War, Fox News (Apr. 5, 2023) https://www.foxnews.com/world/bill-clinton-accidentally-gives-pro-second-amendment-argument-during-interview-russia-ukraine-war (speaking broadly about the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, yet simultaneously supporting Ukrainians’ independent right to protect themselves from its hostile former colonizer.).

[34] Olena Harmash, Crime Has Fallen in Ukraine Since War Began - Interior Minister, Reuters (Mar. 31, 2023)  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/crime-has-fallen-ukraine-since-war-began-interior-minister-2023-03-31/; see also Matthews supra note 32.

[35] See Harmash supra note 34.

[36] See Harmash supra note 34; see also Matthews supra note 32.

[37] Andreas Umland, Ukraine’s Long and Winding Road to EU Membership, DCEP (Jul. 22, 2022) https://cepa.org/ukraines-long-and-winding-road-to-eu-membership/; see e.g. Sallyann Nicholls & Alice Tidey, How Does Europe Compare With The US On Gun Ownership?, EuroNews (May 8, 2019)  https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/05/which-european-country-boasts-the-most-guns-#:~:text=In%20the%20aftermath%20of%20deadly,and%2011%20rounds%20for%20rifles; see also Lopez supra note 9.

[38] See Fred Kaplan, How the Russia-Ukraine War Has Changed Europe, Slate (May 26, 2023) https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/05/russia-ukraine-war-changed-europe.html.

[39] See Jeremy Feigenbaum, In our federalist system, states can regulate public carry, SCOTUSblog (Nov. 21, 2021) https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/11/in-our-federalist-system-states-can-regulate-public-carry/ (detailing the ways the United States Supreme Court has maintained a federalist approach of decentralized state law to allow states to govern their own gun laws according to the individual states’ own needs.); see also Kaplan supra note 38.

[40] See Feigenbaum supra note 39; see also Kaplan supra note 38.

[41] See Feigenbaum supra note 39; see also Kaplan supra note 38.