KIEV, October 20. /TASS/. The EU’s decision to create a military assistance mission to the Kiev regime increases the EU's involvement and turns it into a party to the conflict in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"On October 17, [EU] Foreign Ministers approved the creation of an EU military assistance mission to Ukraine. It will be deployed within a month, and in two years it should train more than 15,000 [Ukrainian] servicemen of various levels of command. The EU allocates nearly €107 million for this, which undoubtedly makes it a party to the conflict," she said.

Zakharova recalled that the sixth meeting of the so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group held in Brussels on October 12 resulted in a decision to supply the Kiev regime with modern air defense systems, as well as, according to the US military, almost 1,500 Stinger man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS).

According to the diplomat, since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, "NATO countries have sent to the regime of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky at least 300 tanks, 130 infantry fighting vehicles, 400 armored personnel carriers, 450 units of other armored vehicles, 700 artillery systems, including multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, 5,000 man-portable anti-aircraft missiles and 80,000 anti-tank rocket systems and grenade launchers, 160,000 small arms, 800,000 pieces of artillery and ammunition, 90 million rounds of ammunition." "And after all this, EU regimes have asked their citizens to bathe less and warm themselves more because there is no way to make their lives comfortable now. We know where this money is going, and now the citizens of these EU countries know as well," Zakharova concluded.