Ukraine denies its territory used to transfer arms to Syria

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied Western media reports that Kiev has been involved in the transfer of weapons to the Syrian government. "There were no supplies or transit of military goods from Russia to Syria via Ukrainian territory during the 2012-2013," the ministry said in a statement. Ukraine has "voluntarily and completely" stopped the military-technical cooperation with Syria since May 2011, said the statement. Ukraine, which is deeply concerned about and dismayed with the situation in Syria, stands for an early end to bloodshed and defends the need to address the conflict by political and diplomatic means, the document said. On Sept. 8, the Washington Post reported that a group of researchers have discovered a heavy volume of traffic in the past two years from Ukraine's southern Oktyabrsk port, which serves ships under the flags of Syria and Lebanon, as well as ships belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian businesses. According to the newspaper, investigators link the heavy volume of traffic in Ukrainian port to the flow of arms and supplies to the combatants in Syria.