NEW YORK, January 16. /TASS/. The United States and its allies have provided over 4,000 pieces of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s special military operation, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

According to the media outlet, Ukraine’s allies have provided the Zelensky regime with more than 4,000 armored vehicles, artillery pieces, aircraft and other weapon systems to help Kiev fight Russia, and now, NATO members are sending more lethal arms.

Bloomberg specified that Kiev had received 300 infantry fighting vehicles, at least 1,100 armored vehicles, 210 US-made M777 artillery systems, over 400 self-propelled pieces of artillery and 410 tanks, while the United Kingdom planned to send fourteen Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, CNN reported on January 15, citing a source familiar with Western intelligence, that Ukraine was "a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations."

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the current special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. In response, the West imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia. In addition, Western countries started to provide weapons and military equipment to Kiev, whose total value is estimated at billions of dollars. The US has already provided $20 bln in military assistance to Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly pointed out that Western weapons supplies to Kiev are only prolonging the conflict, leading to civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure facilities.