'4,000 Russians are fighting for Ukraine rebels'

Firepower: Ukrainian forces head for the threatened town of Mariupul

28 August 2014

The US warned today that increasing numbers of Russian troops are fighting inside Ukraine, as pro-Moscow rebels opened up a new front in the south-east of the country.

Separatists were reported to be heading towards the key port of Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, after taking the town of Novoazovsk. Ukraine said Russian forces had crossed the border and were supporting an attack.

A pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine said that up to 4,000 Russian citizens were fighting in their ranks. Alexander Zakharchenko told Russian TV many were former servicemen or military personnel on leave.

Russia denies sending soldiers or arming the rebels. But the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, said Moscow had already intervened with tanks, armoured vehicles and multiple rocket launchers, which were “insufficient to defeat Ukraine’s armed forces.

“So now an increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting on Ukrainian territory. Russia has also sent its newest air defence systems including the SA-22.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged Vladimir Putin over the presence of Russian forces in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council accused the Russian army of transferring military equipment and personnel to border regions, and from there across the frontier. A commander loyal to Kiev, Vladimir Shilov, told Ukrainian TV that Novoazovsk was blocked by tanks and no one was allowed out. Local officials had fled.

A spokesman for the rebels told Interfax news agency that Novoazovsk was under their control and they would soon “liberate” Mariupol. A new front along the coast would divert Ukrainian forces from the besieged cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In Russia, an army officer’s wife accused the Kremlin of betrayal by sending him to fight in Ukraine while pretending its soldiers were not there.

Ten Russian troops were captured in Ukraine last Sunday, with Moscow claiming they crossed the frontier “by accident”.

Named only as Elena, the army wife savaged as “mythical” the explanation used by Vladimir Putin and his top commanders. “I heard the news about the arrest of the Kostroma paratroopers, and my worst fears turned to be true — they are in Ukraine,” she wrote in a blog highlighted by Ekho Moscow radio station.

She said she had heard that three soldiers had died in Ukraine, and added: “I felt so scared, bitter and hurt. I married a military man, I was proud to be an officer’s wife, that my husband will defend the Homeland. But it turns out that this “Homeland” has betrayed him, removing all the markings of his military clothing and painting over the numberplates on the vehicles.

“What for? Why do they have be killed for the sake of someone’s interests?” Elena said her husband, a paratrooper in the 331st Guards Airborne Regiment in Kostroma, was sent last week to exercises in Rostov region next to Ukraine.

They took military fatigues but were ordered not to wear Russian markings. “He has been there for a week and did not get in touch. The regiment already has three dead, no one knows where they are and when will they return.

“Everyone understands that they are in Ukraine.” She said she feared “our husbands will continue to die as secret spies unmarked and with painted number plates”.

'4,000 Russians are fighting for Ukraine rebels'

Read More