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The officers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) have been trained on the use of mobile mini-scanners for the inspection of light vehicles in order to prevent the smuggling of illicit objects, taking also into account small arms and drugs.
The training came as part of efforts of the European Union in order to further support the project “European Union Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)” which is founded by the EU while carried out by the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to the statement, the supply of handheld backscatter X-Ray imagers will permit SBGS to apply controls in a more effective way while aiming to fight conventional smuggling and also the smuggling of weapons which has also become a risk in wartime.
“The EU’s urgent support to Ukrainian border guards helps protect lives, ensure the agency’s resilience in the face of the Russian aggression, and also increase SBGS capacity to perform more efficient border controls,” the Head of the Good Governance and Democratization Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Xavier Camus, pointed out in this regard.
Camus added that with such delivery, the EU is attempting to help Ukraine fight against the traffic of arms and smuggling at its borders with the EU.
He added that better border controls, as well as higher security, also have strategic long-term importance regarding the EU pre-accession process of Ukraine.
“The delivery of the second batch of mini-scanners worth over €700,000 within the framework of the newly launched ‘European Union Support to Strengthening IBM in Ukraine – Resilience’ scheme is planned for March 2023,” the statement of the EU reads.
Together with deliveries of the border control as well as surveillance means and other measures planned in parallel, the scheme will further back trade facilitation, prevention of corruption, including other physical and psychological rehabilitation of service persons, and other legal approximation and strategic in planning the field of integrated border management.
The project supports the implementation of the reforms approximating the frontier management system of Ukraine to the European Union standards as well as best practices following the Integrated Border Management Strategy of Ukraine that was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers back on July 24, 2019.
The EU’s statement confirms that the project runs from December 2019 until March 2023.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led authorities in EU countries to impose sanctions which have been considered among the harshest in recent years.
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