Contents tagged with Russian Troops in Ukraine

  • Ukrainian Security Service gives Volker evidence of Russia's involvement in shelling of Mariupol

    Vasyl Hrytsak, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), gave US State Department Special Representative Kurt Volker and US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch evidence of Russia's involvement in crimes against humanity on Ukrainian territory.

    The SBU Press Center reports that Hrytsak specifically transmitted materials about the involvement of the Russian army in the shelling of Mariupol and Volnovakha in 2015, an event that resulted in the deaths of 48 Ukrainians.

    "Along with the escalation of …

  • Volker: if not for the Russian troops there would be no need for a military operation in Donbas

    US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said in an interview with Voice of America that he is convinced there is no internal conflict in the Donbas.

    "There is no internal conflict; there are no grounds for civil war; there are no reasons for military operations except for the presence of Russian troops," he said.

    Answering a question on whether there is a real chance to end the war given current circumstances, Volker said: " I think, yes, there is, if President Putin wants. I think …

  • Ukrainian President provides the number of Russian soldiers in Donbas

    According to Kyiv, up to 50% of the militants fighting against the Ukrainian army in the Donbas are Russian citizens, as stated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in an interview with the television channel CBS News.

    "We have confirmed figures that in different times they had from 10,000 to 2,500 Russian regular troops in the occupied territory," Poroshenko said, as noted in a statement released by the President of Ukraine’s Press Office.

    "Plus they have almost 50 thousand troops, so- …

  • US urges Russia to withdraw weapons and troops from Eastern Ukraine

    The U.S. Department of State urged Russia to withdraw weapons and troops from eastern Ukraine. Heather Nauert, the Press Secretary of the American Foreign Ministry, made a statement on April 23, the anniversary U.S. citizen Joseph Stone’s death. Stone served as a paramedic with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM).

    Nauert stated: “The United States calls on Russia to initiate a real and durable ceasefire, to withdraw its …

  • Ukrainian Security Service: Moscow ordered Russian soldiers stationed in Donbas to hand over their passports

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has published audio recordings of intercepted phone calls made by separatist from the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).

    “The SBU has acquired repeated evidence of the presence of Russian soldiers in the illegal armed formations of the so-called D/LPR. In the audio recordings of the terrorists’ phone calls that were intercepted by the SBU, one can hear an order from Moscow to immediately hand over the Russian citizenship passports of all …

  • Ukrainian Military Command: one Russian soldier killed, another wounded in mine explosion at Svitlodarsk salient

    On Sunday, February 18, at the Svitlodarsk salient, two Russian soldiers from the so-called 7th separate motorized rifle brigade (the LPR army) were involved in a mine explosion, reported the Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donbas.

    “Both fighters were citizens of the Russian Federation. One of them – Vladimir Vladimirovich Lyubinov, born in 1988, and a resident of the Krasnodar Krai – was killed. The other – Sergey Valeryevich Mikhailov, born in 1972, and a resident of Astrakhan ( …

  • Former Deputy Secretary General of NATO: there is substantial evidence that Russia is fighting in the Donbas

    There are many Russian tanks without identifying information in the uncontrolled territories in the Donbas, and NATO is aware of this, as stated on Wednesday, February 14th, on Echo of Moscow radio by the former Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Alexander Vershbow.

    He noted that although there are "a lot of tanks in the Donbas that do not have Russian markings, but we are aware of where they come from."

    Also, NATO knows about the Russian military, who are in the Donbas.

    "In fact, we are …

  • Ukrainian volunteers spent 2 years collecting information on salaries paid to Russian soldiers in Donbas and Syria

    Over the course of two years, Ukrainian volunteers have exploited a vulnerability in the Russian Defense Ministry’s website to collect classified information on the salaries paid to Russian soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine and in Syria, as reported on Facebook by Sean Brian Townsend, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance.

    According to him, the Russian news outlet Fontanka.ru found a hole in the Russian Defense Ministry’s website, which Ukrainian volunteers had been using to …

  • Ukrainian court sentences Russian soldier Ageyev to 10 years of imprisonment

    Russian citizen Viktor Ageyev was found guilty of being part of terrorist organization and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. This decision of the Novoaydarskiy District Court of the Luhansk region was reported by his lawyer Viktor Chevguz on his Facebook page.

    According to Chevguz, on January 24, during the judicial debate, the prosecutor stated that the LPR [self-proclaimed Luhansk People's republic] is a terrorist organization, which Ageyev joined as a contract soldier. He was also …

  • Ukrainian Defense Ministry: Russia changing tactics in Donbas

    Russia has begun to change its tactics in the Donbas, putting an emphasis on increasing the potential of its special forces who are involved in sabotage operations, said the Press Secretary of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Dmytro Gutsulyak, reported Channel 24.

    According to him, Russia’s military leaders are using the conflict in the Donbas to train Special Forces.

    "The military and political leadership of Russia is growing the potential of its special operations forces, partially for the …