Interior Minister: Ukrainians should own more guns after war ends

Ukraine’s top law-enforcement official is championing a loosening of gun restrictions as Russia’s attack on the country shifts sentiment toward more openness on civilian possession of firearms.

Russia’s war showed that “tens of thousands” of guns, including assault weapons, that have been distributed by the government for national defence were proof that Ukrainian citizens can “handle arms,” Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

“This is the reason for me to believe that one can allow buying and storing handguns, meaning pistols, at home,” Monastyrsky, 42, said in an interview with Bloomberg News last week. A postwar call to surrender the arms “wouldn’t be heard, since most Ukrainians will continue to feel unsafe,” Monastyrsky said.

Monastyrsky argues that a legal openness to handguns would be a “preemptive measure in anticipation of a sharp rise in crime when the war ends in a country awash in weapons.”

He’s optimistic the drafting can be finalized in two months.

“Certainly, for protection of their homes, civilians should be allowed to use arms,” Monastyrsky summed up.