"Ukraine was very militarized at the start of the special military operation. And, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said yesterday, one of the tasks was the demilitarization of Ukraine. In fact, this task has been mainly completed because Ukraine is using much less of its own arms, while it is deploying more weapons systems supplied by the West," Peskov told Russian broadcaster RT Arabic.
Earlier, Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the United States and NATO were directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, "including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel... on the territory of the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.
Russia commenced a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, to respond to appeals by the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics for protection from Ukrainian military forces.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the goal of the operation, which targets Ukrainian military infrastructure, is the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine, as well as the complete liberation of the Donbass' republics.