The Russian president stated that volunteers who want to help Russia in Ukraine should be assisted in reaching the area of combat operations.
"If you see people who want - on a voluntary basis, especially not for money - to come and help people living in the Donbass - well, you need to cooperate with them and help them move to the war zone", Putin stated during a National Security Council meeting.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu noted that there is a vast number of people who want to help the DPR and LPR in the special operation - over 16,000, with many of them coming from the Middle East.
Armoured vehicles drive along a road in Armyansk in the northern part of Crimea, Russia.
© Sputnik / Konstantin Mikhalchevsky
Commenting on the statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov underlined that the minister specifically meant foreign volunteers, and that he has no information about any plans to attract Russian citizens.
At the same time, Putin stressed that the Kiev regime's "western sponsors" are actively gathering mercenaries and do not even try to conceal their activity, blatantly neglecting the norms of international law.
The preisdent also approved an idea put forward by Shoigu, suggesting that western-made weapons (small arms, tanks, anti-tank guided missiles and man-portable air-defence systems) seized in Ukraine should be transferred to the troops of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
Meanwhile, Shoigu noted that the West is boosting its military presence near Russian territory.
Servicemen from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia sit on armoured vehicles on a road outside Mariupol. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine following the recognition of independence of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk republics.
© Sputnik / Ivan Rodionov
/ "The General Staff is developing and has practically completed a plan to strengthen our western borders, including, of course, those new, modern complexes, and to move combat units there to protect our western borders", Shoigu said.
The news comes as Russian forces and the Donbass militias are advancing in Ukraine amid the special military operation, launched on 24 February. Moscow noted that the operation was started in order to protect the people of Donbass, who were suffering from attacks by Kiev's forces, and noted that the goal of the operation is the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.
The Russian forces have been targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure with precision weapons: the MoD stated that a total of 3,213 Ukrainian military objects have been eliminated since the beginning of the operation.
The list of destroyed Ukrainian vehicles includes "98 aircraft, 118 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,041 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 113 multiple launch rocket systems, 389 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 843 units of special military vehicles", according to an official statement.