Rights defenders: contract soldiers lost in Rostov Region fought in Ukraine

The contract servicemen, who were announced as perished at the firing range in the Rostov Region, in fact fought in the territory of Ukraine, said Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the head of the committee "Mothers of Prikumye" (Prikumye – a region around the Kuma River in the Stavropol Territory, – note of the "Caucasian Knot").

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 25, Sergey Krivenko and Ella Polyakova, members of the Council under the Russian President on Civil Society Development and Human Rights (known as SPCh), appealed to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) asking to check the information about the death of nine contractors of the 18^th Motorised Brigade in the firing range in the Rostov Region.

As stated by Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the above Russian militaries were killed on August 9 in Ukraine – in the town of Snezhnoe, on the border of the Lugansk and Donetsk Regions, when the army column was attacked by a "Grad" volley.

In the opinion of Bogatenkova, the soldiers lost in Ukraine were registered in documents as perished during exercises or dismissed retrospectively. In the latter case, the death is not registered as a combat loss; and relatives cannot rely on any payments from the state and insurance companies.

The "Mothers of Prikumye" have at their disposal a list of lost and wounded soldiers with indication of their names, surnames, patronymics and military ranks, Lyudmila Bogatenkova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given no comments on this information so far.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.