LUGANSK, April 26. /TASS/. The NATO equipment supplied to the Kiev regime’s forces fails to operate smoothly in local weather conditions and Ukraine’s military tries to use Soviet prime movers to evacuate casualties from the battlefield, Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) people’s militia retired Lieutenant-Colonel Andrey Marochko told TASS on Wednesday.

"Due to a large shortage of specialized equipment and the poor cross country capability demonstrated by Western armored personnel carriers, Ukrainian militants have begun to look for the possibility of acquiring Soviet MLTBs [lightweight multi-purpose armored transporter-prime movers] for their medical units," the LPR officer said, citing Russian intelligence data.

Ukrainian medical personnel on the battlefield try to agree with officers of other units on swapping equipment or request multi-purpose prime movers at least for the muddy period, he said.

Marochko said on April 21 that the Ukrainian military would be unable to switch to a counteroffensive in the next two weeks due to unfavorable weather conditions.