The amount of the armed Russian-backed militants in the occupied territories of Donbas is about 34 thousand, according to the Ministry of Defense.
“Illegal armed groups, mostly acting in the first tier of confrontation, transformed into a real army under the watchful Russian leadership, which already exceeds numbers of some European armies,” said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Petro Mehed.
“They have a large number of weapons and military equipment,” added he.
According to him, military and terrorist component of the conflict remains an essential one, and is estimated by Russia to be the final mean to resolve "the situation in Ukraine."
He highlighted that for an adequate response to military and terrorist threats of hybrid war Ukraine uses Armed Forces and other military units to stabilize the contact line in Donbas and prevent further spread of the conflict.
