DONETSK, January 5. /TASS/. Western firearms are supplied primarily to Ukraine’s special force units manned by foreigners, Andrey Bayevsky, a member of the parliament of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lieutenant Colonel of the DPR People’s Militia, told TASS on Thursday.
"Of course, NATO firearms are also supplied. They come primarily to various special force units and sabotage and reconnaissance groups, which are of mixed composition and are mainly manned by the so-called mercenaries. <…> Naturally, it is more convenient for them to use their own arms. They know better how to use them, so it will be, for instance, M4 automatic rifles. It doesn’t mean that such weapons are better, but it means that a concrete mercenary has fired hundreds of thousands of bullets from it rather than from a Kalashnikov. He can use both but he is more accustomed to use Western weapons," he explained.
However, in his words, regular Ukrainian troops use primarily Soviet-made firearms, of which Ukraine has stockpiles.
"A huge number of firearms, such as Kalashnikov guns of various modification, have been stocked at Ukrainian weapons depots since the Soviet era. So, the weapons that were handed out by Kiev in February-March, after the beginning of the special military operation were arms and munitions kept at arsenals since the Soviet era. And they have been using these weapons until today, despite legal exports and regular illegal sales. They have been selling anything that could be sold anywhere they could over the past 30 years. And despite this, they had enough stockpiles to supply to the army," he said.