Taken in Ukraine Russians told the OSCE that they were military – BBC Russian

• 21 May 2015

Share

OSCE observers were able to communicate with the prisoners Russians alone

Members of a special monitoring mission of the OSCE in Ukraine, visited the two Russians detained on May 16 near the settlement Happiness in the Luhansk region.

Both detainees said observers that in the service in the Russian Armed Forces Division and were on the territory of Ukraine the intelligence task. One of them said that he had received military training in Russia.

As previously reported the Ukrainian authorities, after a clash near the town of Happiness were detained Alexander Alexandrov, the Third Brigade Special Forces sergeant based in Togliatti, and Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev was born from Kuibyshev.

They wounded in battle and are now being treated at the hospital of Kiev.

reconnaissance missions

Later, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the identity of both the detainees, but said that those dismissed from the armed forces and were in Ukraine on his own initiative. In the east of Luhansk region detained by separatists called “people’s militia LC”.

Ukrainian military seized from the prisoners showed a sniper rifle used by Russian special forces only

However, in a conversation with members of the OSCE, held in the absence of representatives of the Ukrainian authorities in a military hospital in Kiev, the detainees said they were in the Ukraine on the orders of their commanders.

As the saying goes in the mission report, released on Thursday, the mission assessed the conditions in which detainees are held, their overall and recorded their stories about what happened.

Both the Russians reported that consisted of units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. They say they carried out a reconnaissance operation, had a weapon, but the order to attack and engage in they did not have.

In the General Staff of Ukraine argue that the Russian special forces tried to seize the strategically important bridge near the town Happiness. During the demining area, three Russian soldiers came upon the Ukrainian military. During the armed clashes killed one Ukrainian soldier – a soldier of the 92nd Brigade.

Three Russian soldiers came across Ukrainian troops from the battalion “Aydar”

The two Russian soldiers told the staff of the OSCE mission, which before they had ever been in combat missions in Ukraine. One of them added that it had to change the rotation within three months.

Another detainee Russians, according to the mission, always stressed that the Russian military is not taking part in hostilities in Ukraine.

The two soldiers said that the Ukrainian authorities have provided them with lawyers who visited the Russians on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian authorities, the Western countries, international experts and journalists, including Russian, has repeatedly accused the Russian authorities to provide military assistance to separatists in the east of Ukraine and in direct military involvement in the conflict in the Donbass.

Moscow every time denies these accusations. President Putin has stated several times that in eastern Ukraine there are no regular Russian troops, only volunteers.