Kyiv, December 4, 2014 – over 30 thousand mercenaries are fighting in the action area in the east of Ukraine, and there are, by various estimates, from 6 to 10 thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was the information the general-major Oleksandr Rozmaznin, a representative of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, provided during his media briefing in Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. “At present 32400 people are fighting on the territory of Donbas, 6-10 thousand of them being servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the rest mercenaries and members of so-called illegal paramilitary troops. All the nationalities of the Russian Federation are represented among the mercenaries, the biggest number of them being Chechen, so-called ‘Kadyrov’s people’, representatives of so-called Ukrainian Cossacks (Don, Volga, Zabaykallya Cossacks and others) occupy the second place . “Cossacks are notorious in Donbas for being “upscale” plunderers”, – explained the general-major Rozmaznin.
According to the representative of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there are mercenaries from many countries fighting on the side of illegal armed formations; Ukrainian servicemen detained mercenaries from Israel, Serbia, Spain, Italy and Brasil. At the same time, about 1 thousand foreigners are fighting for Ukraine within volunteer battalions in the ATO zone. “There are people sympathizing with our country, they came immediately to help us. They are, perhaps, a thousand or even more people who have made a choice in favour of our country. There are citizens of the USA, France, Russia, even officers and regular soldiers among those who fight on Ukrainian side. Participation in combat actions on the side of Ukraine entitles them to receive Ukrainian citizenship”, – added Oleksandr Rozmaznin.
Giving comments on rotation of regular army of the Russian Federation, the general-major Rozmaznin pointed out that it was a common practice these days as “the soldiers can not withstand psychological pressure and do not understand what they are fighting for”. “General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine intercepted reports of chiefs of Russian subdivisions illegally located on the territory of Ukraine. These documents confirm big losses of Russian army. The report dated December 2 reads that in two days 299 Russian servicemen died, 190 were wounded, 96 out of them – bad wounded and 171 missing in combat action nearby airport”, – stated representative of General Staff.
Giving answer to a question on presence of Iskander guided missile systems on the territory of the occupied Crimea, Oleksandr Rozmaznin informed: “There are such systems in the inventory of the Russian Federation. Iskander division entered the territory of the temporarily occupied Republic of Crimea. I must say it’s definitely very bad as any missile system may carry nuclear explosives of certain capacity on its rockets. Thus, the very presence of Iskander system gives grounds for belief that there is certain threat”.