LUGANSK, February 8. /TASS/. Most Ukrainian officers, who received training in the West and arrived at the contact line in Donbass, have already been eliminated, says LPR People's Militia retired Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Marochko.

"Those officers [who received training in the West] that are currently on the frontlines have battle experience of less than one year. Most of them have already been eliminated. About those who currently receive training in the West: of course, reserve units are being created there as well, and those who come to the contact line and dilute the unqualified personnel in order to at least somewhat maintain combat capability - those get disposed of by our servicemen very quickly. That said, they cannot keep up in their training of specialists with the rate at which these specialists stay here, on Donbass soil," Marochko said.

Commenting on the situation near Kremennaya, Marochko noted that "indeed, significant progress has been made" by Russian forces.

"Even [Ukrainian] servicemen themselves already call the Kremennaya area a second hell. They call the Artyomovsk area the first one," he said.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference on European Security that the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by shipping weapons and training military personnel. According to Lavrov, personnel training is underway in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.