Ukrainian Security Service releases Russian servicemen interrogation (Video)

The Ukrainian Security Service has released a video interrogation of Russian soldiers captured near the сity of Shchastya in eastern Ukraine.

Two Russian servicemen were captured by the Ukrainian National Guard near the city of Shchastya in the Luhansk Region and confessed they were members of the Russian army.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeniy Yerofeyev admitted belonging to a Russian reconnaissance unit based near the city of Tolyatti on the Volga River. They were wounded and picked up by volunteers from Ukraine’s Aidar Battalion.

Credits to: SBU

Two Russian soldiers who were captured while fighting in eastern Ukraine will be tried on terrorism charges.

They could reportedly face life sentences if found guilty of committing a lethal terrorist act.

The men’s capture is likely to further strain relations with Moscow and will call into question once again Russian denials of military assistance to separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine. The conflict has killed at least 6,100 people since April 2014.

Kyiv has long-insisted that Russian soldiers are fighting in eastern Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have denied presence of their troops there. Moscow would admit at most that Russian volunteers could be fighting there.

According to evidence gathered by the media and soldiers’ rights advocates, Russian troops were mobilised en masse to fight in eastern Ukraine twice. In August and September, a large contingent of Russian troops – a rebel leader said at the time that 1,200 military personnel and 150 pieces of equipment had arrived from Russia – reportedly helped rebel fighters turn back a Ukrainian advance that had made it to the outskirt of Donetsk and Luhansk. In January and February, Russian tank units reportedly spearheaded the capture of the strategic transport hub Debaltseve.

But Russian trainers and special forces have also been operating in eastern Ukraine in smaller numbers throughout the conflict, according to media reports. In October, a group of men in Russian military uniforms told a reporter that they were Russian soldiers who had come to Luhansk to train the local population.

Ievgen Reznik, EMPR
Aleksandra Demskaya contributed to this publication.
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Tags: Conflict zone