On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's proposal to transfer captured Western-made military equipment to the Donbass republics.

At the Security Council meeting, Putin said, "As for the supply of weapons, especially Western-made ones that ended up in the hands of the Russian army, of course, I support the possibility of transferring them to the military units of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR)."

Shoigu had suggested transferring to the DPR and LPR the seized small weapons, tanks, anti-tank guided missiles, and man-portable air-defense systems.

Russia had previously called on NATO and European Union member states to stop providing weapons and "lethal arms" to Kiev.

Putin agrees to send volunteers to Ukraine

The Russian President also agreed to the idea of inviting volunteers to participate in the special military operation in Ukraine.

"If you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and help people living in the Donbas - well, you need to meet them halfway and help them get to the combat zone," Putin said.

According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, numerous volunteers are willing to help people in Donbass, including 16,000 from Middle Eastern nations.

President Volodymyr Zelensky last month urged foreigners to head to Ukrainian embassies worldwide to sign up for an "international brigade" of volunteers to help fight against the Russian operation in Ukraine. 

Zelensky insisted that Ukrainians were allegedly courageous enough to face Russia alone, but said, "This is not just a Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is the beginning of a war against Europe".

Last week, volunteers left Belgium to back Ukraine. 

Around 16,000 foreigners have so far answered the call from some 20 nationalities, Zelensky said, according to Reuters.

On Tuesday, close to 450 extremist Arab and foreign nationals arrived in Ukraine from Idlib to fight against Russia's forces, less than only three days after they left Syria, passing through Turkey.

Relatives of extremists that have arrived in Ukraine told Sputnik that senior fighters from terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (the rebranded version of Jabhat Al-Nusra, i.e Al-Qaeda) have held a number of meetings with senior leaders in the Turkistan Islamic Party group and Ansar Al-Tawhid and Hurras al-Din groups, and agreed on allowing a number of all their fighters to enter Ukraine through Turkish soil.

The sources added that most of these foreign fighters are veterans of the Syrian war, had been causing issues in Idlib, and were given this opportunity to fight against Russia as a compromise by which they would receive a new start and with an acceptable income.

Around 300 of these fighters are Syrian nationals that are originally from the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides, while the 150 others are Belgian, French, Chinese, Moroccan, Tunisian, Chechen, and British nationals.