MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. The new equipment supplied to Kiev by Western countries has not yet been deployed on a mass scale in the fighting in Donbass, but reports have filtered in that Leopard tanks have arrived in the vicinity of Artyomovsk, Yan Gagin, an advisor to the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Wednesday.

"There have been reports about Leopard tanks and armored personnel carriers appearing on the Artyomovsk frontline," he told the Rossiya-1 TV channel. "Currently, foreign-made equipment is not being massively deployed in combat," Gagin added.

On January 25, Germany confirmed plans to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and gave its consent for other countries to re-export such tanks. The United Kingdom, Norway, Slovakia, the United States and France also announced plans to send tanks to Ukraine. Poland said it would provide 14 tanks to Kiev. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on February 24 that Polish tanks had already arrived in Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced at a press conference in Kiev in late February that the country’s first batch of tanks for Kiev included four of the 14 vehicles that it had promised.