Putin, kyseessä oli vain kohtelias vastavierailu. Peskää ja ruokkikaa pojat ja lähettäkää takaisin kotiin mamman luo!
Putin Downplays Reports of Russian Soldiers Captured in Ukraine
- The Moscow Times
- Aug. 27 2014 12:02
- Last edited 12:02
Alexei Druzhinin / Reuters/RIA Novosti/Kremlin Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with high-ranked officials representing Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the European Union in Minsk, August 26, 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday made light of reports on the capture of 10 Russian paratroopers by Ukraine's security services— saying they were likely a stray border patrol— but struck back by saying Russia had never caused a fuss about Ukraine servicemen crossing over to the Russian side.
"What I've heard is that they were patrolling the border and could have ended up on Ukrainian territory," Putin told journalists in Minsk, Interfax reported Wednesday, in line with a statement made earlier by an unidentified source at the Defense Ministry saying the men had crossed the border "by accident."
Putin conceded he had not been informed yet on the issue by the Defense Ministry or the General Staff while making his statement.
But the Russian president also said that Ukrainian soldiers have frequently strayed onto Russian territory, citing an instance of a 450-strong unit crossing the border.
"They've entered our territory, the Ukrainian military has, even with armored vehicles. There were no problems with it. I hope there will be no problems this time either," Putin was cited as saying.
Ukrainian security services on Tuesday reported detaining 10 Russian paratroopers in eastern Ukraine, a territory in the grip of a pro-Russian insurgency that reportedly counts many Russian volunteers in its ranks.
In footage published on the security service's website on Tuesday morning, four of the captured soldiers said their commanders had sent them on a lengthy march during a border exercise without warning it would take them into Ukrainian territory. The paratroopers say in the videos they surrendered without a fight when apprehended by Ukrainian forces.
The capture was confirmed by military sources speaking to Russia's leading news agencies, but no military authorities in Russia made any official statements on the case.
The story reignited speculation about Russia's possible direct military involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, which have been ongoing ever since the ousting of Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovch last spring.
Both Russian and Ukrainian journalists have stoked the rumors, using reports of burials and hospitalizations of Russian soldiers to prove the country's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
A member of the Kremlin rights council, Ella Polyakova, said on liberal Dozhd television on late Tuesday that about 100 injured Russian soldiers were recently flown into St. Petersburg from an unspecified location.
Polyakova, a soldiers' rights advocate, added that an unspecified number of Russian troops had been hospitalized in Rostov-on-Don.
She reported earlier the same day the destruction of a Russian military recon group in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, several Russian journalists were assaulted in Russia's Pskov region when trying to investigate reports about two paratroopers recently buried there, possibly victims of the Ukrainian conflict.
Thugs attacked the journalists in their car at the cemetery, puncturing their tires and trying to smash their windows, according to a video published Tuesday by Dozhd.
Dozhd also reported the journalists had been threatened, saying unidentified men had told them to leave Pskov and that "they will never be found again if they continue asking questions," Dozhd said.
The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly denied sending any troops to Ukraine.