The Verkhovna Rada legalized trophy weapons for civilians — but only until the end of martial law

The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) adopted in its second reading Law No. 9538, which allows civilians to declare and use found weapons to repel Russian aggression during martial law.

The broadcast of the meeting was led by the MP from "European Solidarity" Oleksiy Honcharenko.

The draft law was supported by 291 MPs.

The document stipulates that civilians who find firearms, their main parts or ammunition are obliged to immediately notify the National Police about this and hand them over to law enforcement officers within 24 hours.

In the future, such weapons are either permanently surrendered to law enforcement officers, or declared and returned to the owner before the end of martial law. After the end of martial law, civilians will have 90 days to finally surrender their trophy weapons.

Not subject to declaration:

• rifled firearms with a caliber of 12.7 mm or more and ammunition for them;
• smooth-bore firearms with a caliber greater than 23 mm and ammunition for them;
• machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, flamethrowers, portable anti-aircraft missile systems, barrel artillery systems and ammunition for them and other weapons and ammunition that cannot be owned by civilians;
• firearms and ammunition for them, which are means or instruments of a committed criminal offense;
• weapons assigned to servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other military formations, as well as law enforcement agencies (SBU, National Guard, and others);
• ammunition separately from firearms.

Firearms and their ammunition, which are not subject to declaration, are seized by the National Police.

• In April of this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that now Ukrainians may have from one to five million weapons.