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 the Russian soldiers and special forces who are fighting in the LPR and DPR territory, and to receive the fake republics’ passports as cover documents,” the SBU press center reported.
SBU spokesperson Ihor Huskov said in a 112 Ukraine broadcast that there are actually many more recorded phone calls. Amongst them are the positions of the participants in the so-called 9th Motor Rifle Regiment of the DPR 1st Army Corps. The recordings were made on March 23, Huskov clarified, which means that the order was to hand over the passports by March 24.
These recordings are further evidence of the presence of Russian military personnel in the Donbas, Huskov emphasized.
“According to the SBU’s information, the number of Russian troops is almost 38,000 today, including Russian advisers and instructors, who number more than 2,000,” he noted.
The SBU is convinced that the disclosure of the acquired recordings is extremely important in order to correctly demonstrate that there are Russian ranking officers and special forces fighting against the Ukrainian army in the Donbas.