DONETSK (Sputnik) — Commenting on the possible supply of lethal weapons, Kostenko said that "the West had been supplying arms to Ukraine since 2014 without trying to hide the amount of the supplies."
According to the spokesman, two sides are involved in the conflict in Donbass — Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics DPR and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).
"The West is yet again engaged in populism, by appealing to the expression of the 'Russian aggression' which is groundless and not legally proven. The international community has recognized at the Minsk talks that Ukraine and the Donbass republics were the sides of the conflict," Kostenko said.
The Ukrainian government has been looking to the European Union and the United States for both lethal and non-lethal aid since it launched a military operation in the east of Ukraine after local residents refused to recognize the new government that came to power in what they considered a coup. In August, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the United States was considering delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine.
