Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said that the number of members of illegal armed groups in Donbas is currently more than 40,000 and that they continue to receive financial support, including arms and military equipment from the Russian Federation.

During the discussion of additional measures to ensure the country's defense capability at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, Poroshenko said that "the total number of the enemy force in Donbas taking into account members of illegal armed groups is more than 40,000 people, while the Russian military grouping near the state border totals over 50,000 servicemen, almost 1.5 times more than in July 2014," the president's press service reported on Wednesday.

The president said: "Rosvoentorg (a name used to designate the organizations supplying weapons and uniforms for illegal armed groups from Russia, which comes from the statements of the Russian Federation, that 'civilians' in Crimea in 2014 bought Russian weapons and uniforms in a 'regular Voentorg') continues to regularly supply militants with weapons, military equipment, ammunition, clothing and fuel. A rifle which hangs on the wall will sooner or later go off. This rule applies not only to conventional theater, but also the theater of war. "

In this connection, Poroshenko stressed the need to work to strengthen the defense capability and create modern armed forces in Ukraine.