Evidence of direct Moscow military involvement in Ukraine grows


Kiev published videos on Tuesday of what it said were 10 Russian paratroopers captured inside Ukraine, in the strongest evidence yet of the increasingly overt presence of Russian forces in the east of the country.

The videos emerged hours before Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, began what were set to be difficult talks with EU representatives in Minsk, Belarus, aimed at plotting a diplomatic route out of the crisis.

The two leaders were shown in a tight-lipped handshake before their first meeting since June.

Moscow has repeatedly denied claims by Kiev and western capitals that it has funnelled arms and soldiers across the border to support pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

But the videos, of men Ukraine claimed it had captured on Monday in the eastern Donetsk region, appeared to vindicate Kiev’s claims.

They may fuel concerns among US and EU officials that Russia is stepping up support for the eastern rebels to try to reverse advances made by Ukraine’s military in recent weeks.

The flow of Russian soldiers and equipment across the border has appeared to increase ahead of the Minsk talks, with Moscow barely concealing its tracks.

Susan Rice, US national security adviser, tweeted that Russia’s increasing military incursions into Ukraine “represent significant escalation”.

Russia said on Tuesday some of its soldiers had crossed the border into Ukraine – but by mistake.

“These soldiers really did participate in patrolling a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border and crossed it in an unmarked section, probably by accident,” a Russian defence official told state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian army spokesman, said since the Russian troops were captured more than 20km inside Ukraine, their presence could not have been accidental.

Mr Lysenko also alleged on Tuesday that Russia was preparing nearly 100 more tanks, armoured personnel carriers, trucks and Grad missile systems, for “likely” delivery to Ukraine, near the border in Russia’s Rostov region.

Kiev said on Monday Russia had sent a separate column of weapons and troops across the border in an attempt to open a new front south of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, where many rebels are now pinned down.

That column was reported on Tuesday to be backing rebel forces shelling the town of Novoazovsk, in southeast Ukraine.

In videos posted on Tuesday by Ukraine’s SBU state security service, one detained Russian paratrooper said: “We were sent to fight with people who, in principle, we should not fight with.”

Another, identifying himself as Sergeant Alexei Generalov, said: “Please stop sending [our] boys here. This is not our war . . . and if we were not here, there would be nothing going on, they would resolve their own problems in their own country.”

Information on social networking sites appeared to confirm the men’s claims to be active Russian soldiers.

“Officially [Russian solders] are on exercises in various corners of Russia. In reality, they are participating in military aggression against Ukraine,” said Valeriy Geletey, Ukraine’s defence minister.

Attention has also focused on Pskov, in western Russia, where funerals have been held in recent days of paratroopers who died in unexplained circumstances – but who media and social media reports have suggested were killed in Ukraine.

Reporters from two independent Russian news publications, Novaya Gazeta and Fontanka.ru, found in a cemetery outside Pskov graves of two men identified on social networking pages as Russian paratroopers. Their gravestones showed they died on August 19 and 20.

On August 21, Ukraine’s military claimed that it captured two armoured vehicles of Russia’s Pskov Airborne Division near Lugansk. It backed up the allegation with photos from a Ukrainian journalist of the vehicles and personal identification documents apparently belonging to Russian servicemen.

While some of those servicemen’s social networking pages have been deleted, cached versions appear to show the men were paratroopers and that they stopped posting on social networks after August 16, when they are believed to have left Pskov for the Rostov region.

Over the weekend, a list appeared online naming ten Russian paratroopers in the division who allegedly died near Lugansk. Family members contacted by Novaya Gazeta and Fontanka.ru said they had not heard from the men since August 16.

On August 18, Mr Putin signed a decree awarding a division of the Russian Airborne Troops’ 76th Guard medals “for successful fulfilment of combat assignments”.

However, Russia’s government and military have continued to deny that any Russian troops have died on Ukrainian territory.

“There are reports saying that the Ukrainian army destroyed a Russian military convoy and that airborne assault vehicles carrying certain documents had been seized,” Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, told reporters on Monday. “Even if one can imagine this as being true, who would carry so many documents? It’s ridiculous.”

In an interview with a Pskov newspaper, Colonel General Vladimir Shamanov, commander of Russia’s airborne troops, called allegations about the deaths of paratroopers “pure provocation”.

“In our airborne assault brigade everyone is alive and well,” he said.

Source http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac363240-2d06-11e4-911b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3BWbow3YG

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