Ukraine conflict: Russian families look for soldier sons ------------------------------------------------------------------- Accusations of Russian involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine are nothing new, but now they are accompanied by a growing concern from relatives of Russian servicemen unable to locate them or, in the worst cases, having to receive their bodies. In Kostroma, north of Moscow, relatives of those serving with the elite 98th Airborne division headed to their base on Thursday trying to find out where their relatives were. The soldiers were last known to be flying on manoeuvres. This is the same unit from which 10 Russian soldiers were captured in Ukraine earlier this week. A man introduced as a representative of the unit said the units soldiers were still in Russias Rostov region - which borders the fighting-ravaged regions of eastern Ukraine - and would make contact with their families on 31 August. But if local residents of Kostroma are to be believed, for some soldiers it may be too late. Valeria Sokolova, the wife of one of the paratroopers, told AFP news agency that coffins with the bodies of local servicemen had arrived in the town on Wednesday. There is no independent confirmation. So far there are two confirmed sightings of funerals of servicemen deployed to Rostov. Two freshly dug graves were discovered this week near the north-western town of Pskov, home to another well-known paratrooper division. They belong to 29-year-old Leonid Kichatkin and Alexander Osipov, aged 20. According to the inscriptions on the gravestones, they died on 19 and 20 August. Local journalists attempts to meet relatives of the dead soldiers had to be aborted after threats from a group of aggressive men. Similar threats were issued to a Reuters correspondent the next day. So far, there has not been any official explanation of these two deaths. The plaques with the soldiers names were later removed from both graves. The long-rumoured involvement of Russias military in Ukraine tallies with the reports of a sudden loss of contact between soldiers and their relatives, posted on social networks, websites and regional media. Added credibility comes from a network of NGOs called the Committee of Soldiers Mothers, which has been at the forefront of defending soldiers rights ever since the Russian wars in Chechnya in the mid 1990s. Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the head of the Soldiers Mothers branch in Stavropol in southern Russia, claimed on Wednesday that it had a list of 400 names featuring many wounded and dead soldiers. Many are from units normally stationed in Chechnya and neighbouring North Ossetia, she says. There are also reports of several funerals of soldiers in another republic in the northern Caucasus, Dagestan. The source of the list has not been disclosed - and no official comment has come from Russias defence ministry. Some activists are more outspoken than others. Ella Polyakova, the head of the Soldiers Mothers branch in St Petersburg, claimed on Wednesday that many military hospitals in Rostov had received a lot of wounded soldiers over the past few days. She is also a member of the Presidential Council of Human Rights and has logged an appeal to Russias Investigative Committee, demanding they investigate reports of nine casualties from the northern Caucasus. She also said she would demand an inspection of military hospitals in the south of Russia.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 14:08:25 +0000
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