15:35, 3 September 2008

Fridinskiy: 71 Russian peacekeepers perished and 340 wounded in conflict with Georgia

As of September 3, 71 Russian peacekeepers are regarded to be casualties and 340 more as wounded victims as a result of Georgia's aggression, said Sergey Fridinskiy, Chief Military Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, during the TV-Bridge Show held with the city of Tskhinvali.

"There are missing persons with still unknown fate, but I think we'll manage to dot all the i's soon," Mr Fridinskiy told journalists today during the TV-Bridge Show organized by the "Vesti-24" Channel.

The ITAR-TASS reports that the Prosecutor has also informed the audience that his office is now verifying the facts of recruits' participation in warfare in South Ossetia. As he said, "this is a certain violation of the law."

In the Q&A session, Sergey Fridinskiy said that the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office is now also verifying, together with other agencies, facts about foreigners' participation in the conflict. "Documents of foreign citizens were found among the casualties. However, we failed to find the bodies of the owners of these documents in place," he said.