RIA Novosti: Russian volunteers making up to 2 per cent of Donbass separatists – rebel envoy

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 3, 2015)

The number of Russian volunteers among Donbass rebels does not exceed 2 per cent, Vladyslav Deyneho (Vladislav Deynego), the authorized representative of the [self-proclaimed] Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) at the contact group, has said.

Moscow has repeatedly said that it is not a party to the conflict in east Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich has said that “there have not been any” Russian servicemen in Ukraine. The Russian army does not fight there but there are volunteers who “cannot stand aside from what is happening in Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, he added.

“The proportion of Russian volunteers among the rebels in Donbass… [ellipsis as published] is one to 50 but no more than that,” Russkaya Sluzhba Novostey [Russian News Service, a pro-Kremlin radio station] quoted Deyneho as saying.

Deyneho was commenting on the Ukrainian security forces’ report to Washington called “Russian aggression against Ukraine”. One can hardly come across any Russian volunteers among the rebels but there are indeed units mostly formed of Russians, Deyneho said.

The Ukrainian authorities and Western countries have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Russia denies this and rejects such accusations as unacceptable. Moscow has repeatedly said that it is not involved in the situation in the southeast and that the settlement of Ukraine’s political and economic crisis is in its interests.

Also, the Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly said that it does not provide the rebels with any military hardware, munitions and other aid. The Defence Ministry described Kiev’s statements to this effect as “absolute nonsense” which is “beyond any criticism”. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the statements about Russian military presence in Donbass are unfounded and no-one has managed to provide any specific proof of this so far despite the repeated accusations.

 

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