More than 178 thousand firearms have been lost or stolen in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war

Since the full-scale war started, the number of lost and stolen firearms has sharply increased. In just February 2022, the volume of these losses exceeded the entire total for 2021: 24,677 units in one month compared to 19,829 for the whole previous year.

Since the start of full-scale war there have been 178,818 units of lost or stolen firearms — this is 30% of the total number of firearms in the Registry over the entire time. The oldest record dates back to the year 1920.

In 2023, the situation has stabilized but has not yet reached the levels of the relatively peaceful 2021. In just under 11 months, the number of lost and misplaced firearms has significantly decreased to 65,371 units.

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The number of lost and stolen firearms

Month	January 2021	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	January 2022	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	January 2023	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November
The number of lost and stolen firearms	1,628	2,073	409	582	1,001	1,496	1,512	1,151	3,180	1,642	2,441	2,714	877	24,677	7,288	5,111	5,261	2,916	20,528	10,805	22,123	4,715	5,332	5,879	4,230	6,491	6,442	4,941	6,839	8,768	6,271	6,171	6,023	6,021	3,174

Since February 2022, the majority 80% of the firearms were lost, and only 20% were stolen. The highest number of stolen firearms occurred in 2022, with over 26 thousand. From the beginning of 2023, the number of stolen firearms has sharply decreased to 2 thousand units.

What type of firearms do they lose or steal the most?

They mostly lose and steal these types of firearms:

• Hunting shotguns (28.46%)
• Rifles (24.93%)
• Carbines (12.89%).

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By the model of lost and stolen firearms, the top three are AK74 (15.21%), PM (8.98%), and SKS (6.53%).

More than half of the lost and stolen firearms 54.30% are rifled guns, another 29.26% are smoothbore firearms, and 7.33% are rubber bullet guns. In terms of manufacturers, 69.6% of the lost and stolen firearms are foreign-made.

Geography of lost and stolen firearms

Since the full-scale war began, the most firearm thefts have been recorded in the Sumy region (10,234 units), while the most lost firearms are in the Zaporizhia region (28,076 units).

Overall, the highest number of losses and thefts of firearms has been recorded in the Zaporizhia (29,053 units), Donetsk (27,031 units), and Luhansk (21,524 units) regions.

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The background

The data in the Registry of lost and stolen firearms include information about both civilian and military arms. The details are recorded in the Registry for further tracking—this is important for correctly marking and searching for firearms.

Soldiers use a special process to account for firearms, where they indicate the reason for the disappearance or malfunction of the firearm. A similar process occurs when civilians report the loss of their firearms. If a firearm is stolen, the owner needs to report the theft and file a corresponding statement with law enforcement agencies to update the information in the Registry.