WASHINGTON, May 3. /TASS/. The United States has seen no indication that Russia is receiving weapons from third countries or that Moscow attempted to obtain such assistance, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told briefing on Monday.
"I've seen no indication that they [the Russian authorities - TASS] have gotten external assistance from a third nation. <…> I just haven't seen any indication that they're trying to draw on external sources [to receive weapons] from other governments or other countries," Kirby said.
"But they had assembled an awful lot of their own organic combat power outside Ukraine before the 24th of February. <…> They still have a lot of that combat power left," Kirby noted.
On February 24, Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. After that the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals. They also increased supplies of weapons to the Ukrainian authorities.