This piece was first published in The Counteroffensive, an independent publication dedicated to on-the-ground reporting on the war in Ukraine. Check out more of their journalism here.

Kyiv, Ukraine — When push comes to shove, this Ukrainian believes, tyrants only understand the language of violence.

“If we had the same gun ownership percentage as the United States does, Russia would never have dared to invade us,” argued Maryan Zablotskiy, who is a member of parliament for Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party.

Zablotskiy is one of the authors of a bill that would create a universal right to firearms for all Ukrainians. In the interim, he has also been asking Americans to send their guns to Ukraine.

His lobbying led to the transfer of hundreds of firearms gathered from sunny Miami and shipped to war torn Ukraine, to aid the police and the Irpin Territorial Defense.

Ukraine is one of the few countries where the issue of firearms for civilians is not yet regulated by law. Weapons are restricted through rules set by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not by a law passed by parliament.

The war raises a key question: if Ukrainians had free access to weapons, would it have helped many of them survive the occupation and resist more effectively?

The topic has been discussed in the Ukrainian parliament since the 1990s. And after 2014, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the issue of self-defense was debated with renewed vigor. Since then, several bills on the legal status of guns have been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration.

The day before the full-scale invasion in 2022, the Law on the Right to Civilian Firearms was passed in its first reading. During martial law, the new legislation prohibited all but military and law enforcement officers from carrying civilian firearms outside the place of storage.

It took almost two years for the bill to make any progress. A revised version of the proposal appeared in late December 2023. If it passes, Ukrainians will be legally allowed to purchase short-barreled firearms, starting five years after the end of martial law. However, eligibility will be limited to those who are at least 30 years old, and have at least five years of experience legally owning other weapons.

On March 20, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada passed the bill in its first reading with a majority of votes. Now the bill must be amended and then passed in its second reading. If this happens, it must be signed by President Zelenskyy. Only then will the bill become law.

After the full-scale invasion began, Maryan immediately started thinking about how he could get more guns into Ukrainian hands. He realized that it was primarily through his connections with American conservatives.

“There are more guns in the U.S. than necessary for the population’s safety. Therefore, I thought some Americans might be willing to share their excess firearms or donate them to Ukrainians in need,” Maryan said, in an interview at The Counterofensive’s Kyiv office.

To do this, it was necessary to create legal mechanisms for the guns to be imported. At the time, there was no process by which Americans could ship their firearms to Ukraine. The development of the legal procedure took a year and a half.

In November 2022 the mayor of Irpin, a city in the Kyiv region, Oleksandr Markushyn and MP Maryan Zablotskiy traveled to Miami. There, they signed an agreement to transfer small arms to Ukraine. All in all, they managed to get around two hundred firearms from Miami, all donated or purchased through a buy-back program that got firearms off the streets.

Maryan says the hardest part of his programme, which he calls the Ukrainian Arsenal of Liberty, is getting licenses to export the weapons legally. He now wants to expand the program, and strategically increase the percentage of Ukrainians who own guns.

“Only two percent of adult Ukrainians own a gun, which makes the country vulnerable to invasion,” Zablotskiy argued.

These weapons from Miami were delivered to the police in Irpin, as well as to the military of the volunteer forces who defended the city at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, said Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn.

“The first shipment of weapons was about 200 [firearms] – we handed them over to the Irpin police. Another part – about 40 [firearms] – was given to the military,” Markushyn told The Counteroffensive.

Oleksii, an official in Irpin’s territorial defense unit, received one of the weapons: an F-1 Firearms FDR-15 – an AR-15 variant.

From the first days of the full-scale offensive in Irpin city, Oleksii joined the resistance forces. He was directly involved in the fighting in Irpin. After the region’s liberation, he joined a volunteer battalion, where he is now.

The Ukrainian military, thanks to American weapons, is constantly carrying out tasks related to the protection of the community, the protection of infrastructure and, above all, with mobile anti-drone fire teams whose primary targets are Iranian Shahed drones.

Usually, drones are downed by machine guns, but small arms sometimes help. If the shooters are accurate, they can pierce critical components that could bring the drones down.

“Last year there were such cases. In August, three shooters used [small arms] to shoot down a drone… It lost control and fell within half a kilometer. It was a hit,” Oleksii said.

Irpin’s territorial defense units also teach civilians how to use weapons properly.

“The standard weapons we have cannot be used for training because they are Soviet-era calibers, and their ammunition is in short supply, making them unusable. However, thanks to American weapons, we can buy civilian rifles and use them to train the population,” Oleksii said.

All of them – the member of parliament Maryan, soldier Oleksii and Mayor Oleksandr – emphasize that their main belief is that every Ukrainian should have a weapon so that they can defend themselves, their families, and their country.

Maryan is convinced that this is actually one of the best security guarantees that can be offered to Ukraine.

“I want to ensure the best possible security guarantees for Ukraine by allowing everyone to own a firearm. If Russians enter Bucha or other areas where they committed atrocities, they should know they’ll face resistance from every window,” Zablotskiy said.