The number of tanks in rebel-held eastern Ukraine has increased 20 times in two years, while the number of armored fighting vehicles has spiked more than tenfold, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister on Euro-Atlantic Integration, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, announced on August 26.
Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian separatist groups in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions since the late spring of 2014, after the rest of the country ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. Russia has denied providing the militants in the two predominantly Russian-speaking regions with reinforcements or arms, despite accusations from the U.N. and NATO allies. Instead the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed the arms used by militants are Ukrainian or Soviet arms that were deployed in Ukraine before fighting began.
