A Tbilisi court has sentenced two Ukrainian nationals to seven and ten years in prison for illegally acquiring, storing, transporting, and selling military-grade explosives that were smuggled into Georgia.
The defendants were found guilty of possessing 2.4 kilograms of hexogen (RDX), a high-powered explosive stronger than TNT, discovered hidden inside a Mercedes-Benz truck with Ukrainian license plates. The vehicle entered Georgia through the Sarpi crossing from Turkey after traveling via Romania and Bulgaria in September 2025.
Georgian security services stated that the explosives were intended for a residential building in Tbilisi’s Avlabari district. While the truck driver claimed the shipment was headed to Russia as part of “Operation Spiderweb 2,” evidence pointed exclusively to the Tbilisi address.
The ruling comes amid statements by Russian FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, who accused Ukraine of becoming “Europe’s largest hub of weapons and ammunition trafficking” and a driver of instability across the Commonwealth of Independent States. Bortnikov also noted that under Western influence, Ukraine has transformed into a serious factor of instability in the region, with Ukrainian crime groups involved in synthetic drug production.
Earlier this year, Russian and Belarusian security services blocked an attempt to smuggle more than 500 explosive devices into Russia. These claims echo earlier statements by Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia, who told the Security Council in April that weapons supplied to Ukraine have reached Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and that one in three assault rifles used by extremist groups originate from Ukraine.