By Jaime Ortega.
About 15,000 Russian soldiers were sent to Ukraine in the last two months and hundreds have died in combat, according to a few human rights groups. These calculations are based on information provided by the families whose relatives were sent to perform maneuvers and then stopped communicating with home.
During the past few weeks there has been discreet funerals of soldiers on Russian soil, whose deaths have not been explained by Moscow. But from various sectors of civil society inside Moscow, there has begun protest to extend at the lack of transparency about what happened to thousands of young people.
From the beginning of the crisis, Moscow has denied having deployed troops in Ukraine to help pro-Russian separatists in the fighting against Ukrainian forces. The surprising resurgence of the militia, until two weeks holed up in their strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk ago, and satellite photos in which sees Russian armor advancing towards the Ukrainian border have cast many doubts about the sincerity of Moscow.
However, now the speaker is not a Western Chancery or the old enemy of NATO, but military families who live with anxiety for a drip of news about some soldiers who should have gone home weeks ago and have left without answering the phone. Valentina Melnikova, chairwoman of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, the main organization representing the families of the military, it estimated between 7,000 and 8,000 Russian troops now in Ukraine.
His words paint a much higher figure than that targeted by NATO last week, when he ventured that he had “more than 1,000 Russian soldiers” in Ukraine. The Russian president said to he head of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, that, “his army can conquer Kiev in two weeks if he tries.” This follows a telephone conversation between the Russian president and the outgoing European Commissioner. According to published by the Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’, Putin tried to see the European Union despite sanctions and will not lift off the throttle, and if the West continues with the approach remains to date is able to go further in his speech in Ukraine.
More than 2,600 dead
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has nearly 2,600 dead and 6,000 injured between mid-April, at which Kiev launched its operation against the militia, on 27 August, according to the latest report of the UN. Based on data provided by the Russian soldiers themselves or by their families, human rights advocates estimate that at least 200 Russian military men may have died in Ukraine. According to the head of Citizens and Army Sergei Krivenko, and leader of Soldiers’ Mothers in St. Petersburg, Ella Polyakova, advisory board member human rights of Russian President about 100 soldiers of the infantry brigade number 18, have died in Ukraine. Deputy Russian opposition Shlosberg Lev said Saturday that some 100 paratroopers from Pskov city had died on Ukrainian soil, according to AFP.
Yesterday was the first morning without shootings in the city of Donetsk, while Ukrainian troops have lost Lugansk airport. The army claimed that his men retreated to the threat of Russian tanks surrounding the airfield. In Mariupol Luens night were still digging trenches, while the Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the missile that brought down the boat on patrol in the Sea of Azov was launched from Bezhimenne, a pro-Russian territory. Still missing two Coast Guard sailors on the boat.
From Kiev, the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of carrying out an intervention in the country. The group of mothers of Russian soldiers gives the reason: “Military commanders are conducting a special covert operation,” Melnikova said. Is difficult to verify the numbers, because Moscow has imposed a news blackout on any information regarding the deployment of soldiers.
