Kyiv, August 26, 2014 – “A joint group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Secret Service of Ukraine arrested 10 servicemen of the Russian airborne forces from the military unit #71211, regiment 331, division 98, near the village of Dzerkalne in Donetsk oblast. The Russians, who were detained together with their personal documents and weapons, have already testified. According to the servicemen, their battalion was relocated by railway to Rostov oblast in Russia on August 23, 2014, and around 3 a.m. on August 24 the department was raised on alarm and was given orders to march in a column consisting of several dozen BMD infantry vehicles. Only the officers were informed that the Russian servicemen would invade Ukrainian territory. A criminal case has been opened due to this invasion,” stated Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the NSDC Information Center, during a briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
A sabotage-intelligence group, which crossed the border from Russian territory, was detected on August 25 in “Krasna Talivka” area of Luhansk oblast. At 3 p.m. a camouflaged border control regiment stopped the saboteurs’ movement with machine gun fire. Additional operative and combat border servicemen groups arrived at the scene as reinforcement. “Ardent combat with the Russian mercenaries lasted for 2,5 hours. The sabotage group had support from the Russian Federation, by mine launchers, 2 BTR armored carriers and 2 BMP infantry vehicles. In addition, the Ukrainian border servicemen were fired at by unmanned missiles from 2 military Mi-24 fighter helicopters belonging to the Russian Armed Forces. Four border servicemen have been killed and three were injured in combat. The heroes’ actions prevented the invasion. The enemy suffered severe losses. The wounded and killed saboteurs were evacuated from the battlefield to Russia on a BMD vehicle under BTR and helicopter fire cover,” stated the NSDC spokesman.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces received additional Ukrainian weapons in the ATO zone. The armored equipment that was used in the military parade on Independence Day of Ukraine arrived there yesterday. It includes armored “Kuguar” cars for urban combat, modernized armored “KrAZ” vehicles for personnel transportation, howitzer batteries and missile launch systems.
According to the Main Defense Ministry Headquarters, mercenaries and Russian charterers dismounted the equipment of strategic military complex productions, in particular, the Luhansk electronic engineering factory and “Yunist” factory in Krasnodon. As of this moment, 4 vehicles with high-precision equipment have been taken from Donetsk “Tochmash” plant to Makyyivka, possibly to be transported further to Russia.
Today marks the beginning of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s work visit to Minsk (Republic of Belarus), where a meeting will be held between the Presidents of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, as well as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.
On August 25 Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt called the recent Russian army invasion on Ukrainian territory a new level of conflict.
The MFA of the Czech Republic called on Russia to stop the supply of heavy weaponry, attacks on Ukrainian regiments, as well as any other steps aimed towards further destabilization of the situation in the east of Ukraine. Additionally, the government in Prague condemned the murder of the Honorary Lithuanian Consul in Luhansk.
