Russian Officials Admit12 Soldiers From Airborne Division in Pskov Died Under “Secret” Circumstances in the Ukraine

Deaths of Russia Soldiers Said Killed in Ukraine ‘Secret’

Bloomberg News, November 11, 2014

Russian officials said 12 soldiers based in the western Pskov region died under “secret” circumstances that a lawmaker attributed to fighting in Ukraine.

Lev Shlosberg, a deputy in Pskov’s parliament who also publishes a local newspaper, said the men were killed while fighting alongside rebels in a civil war that President Vladimir Putin says Russian forces have no role in.

Shlosberg said he learned the men, all between 20 and 40, died in battle in late August and early September from relatives and comrades who asked for “total anonymity” to avoid “being killed.” He submitted a request for details to the military prosecutor’s office, which replied only that they “died in the line of duty” while “away from their permanent base,” according to a document posted on his LiveJournal blog.

“Everybody knows they died on Ukrainian territory,” Shlosberg said by phone today from Tartu, Estonia. “The level of Russia’s political and military leadership is sometimes inadequate. Russia’s military failed to prepare the army for combat action in Ukraine.”

A spokeswoman for the military prosecutor’s office in Moscow, Natalya Zemskova, confirmed the authenticity of the document posted by Shlosberg and declined to comment on his “emotional statements.”

‘ILLEGAL ACTIONS’

The U.S. and the U.K. yesterday condemned Russia for what they said was the arming of separatists in Ukraine, while the European Union warned of additional sanctions against Putin’s government. EU and U.S. penalties already imposed have all but shut financial markets to Russian companies.

“Russia’s illegal actions are destabilizing a sovereign state and violating its territorial integrity,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech in London. They pose a “grave danger to the rest of Europe,” he said.

Tensions are mounting in Ukraine after separatists held Nov. 2 elections that the government in Kiev and its U.S. and European allies said threatened a Sept. 5 truce. Ukraine has accused Russia of moving troops, tanks and military vehicles into rebel-held areas to continue destabilizing the country and to thwart its ambition for deeper ties with the EU.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment on Russia’s activities in Ukraine, saying by phone today that “this is not our topic.” The Defense Ministry’s press service also declined to comment immediately.

In September, the ministry rejected a request from Dmitry Gudkov, a lawmaker in Russia’s lower house of parliament, for information about soldiers reportedly killed in Ukraine, saying that any such disclosure would violate laws on personal data, the Vedomosti reported said today.

Fighting in Ukraine has killed more than 4,000 people and displaced 1 million more since Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in February and Russia annexed Crimea in March, according to the United Nations.