Russians who fought in Donbass want veteran status
The "Donbass Volunteers Union" hopes that during the next session of the Russian State Duma their members will be granted the status of combat veterans, reports TASS.
"We are applying all efforts to assign the Donbass conflict parties a status of war veterans. We prepared an appeal to MPs and hope that the Duma will respond to this during the new session,” the Head of the Union, Andrey Pinchuk, said. He went on to stress that “volunteers” need to be provided with medical assistance.
The Kremlin continues to deny direct military involvement in eastern Ukraine, despite a plethora of evidence that suggests that Russian troops are engaged in hostilities with the Ukrainian Army.
Many, including slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, have provided evidence showing that Russian soldiers were often times forced to quit the army officially before heading to eastern Ukraine, which enables the Kremlin to continue its insistence that all Russian fighters in the Donbass region are there as volunteers.
These “volunteers” are now requesting veteran bonuses from the government who sent them to war.
Last week, during his annual end-of-the-year Q & A session, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russian military “specialists” were engaged in military-related tasks in eastern Ukraine, but continued to stress that there are no regular Russian troops in the Donbass region.