Ukraine says it has 10 Russian soldiers in captivity
The Ukrainian government has released video footage of 10 men it claims are Russian soldiers, just hours before the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a regional meeting in Minsk, Belarus.
The New York Times reports that in the video, the soldiers provide their name, rank, and serial number. They said they were sent to Ukraine on orders from their higher-ups who had initially told them they were going on a training mission.
One of the men confirmed a long held suspicion that Russia was sending soldiers over the Ukrainian border in unmarked military vehicles to fight Ukrainian forces. The Times reports that in the video, one of the men says their cell phones and identification were confiscated before they were loaded into an unmarked vehicle and sent to Ukraine.
If the video is authentic, it would be the most concrete evidence yet of Russian involvement in Ukraine. Although the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine seemed to have Russian weaponry and supplies, there has not been any concrete, irrefutable evidence to confirm Russian involvement in the area.
The continuous reports of Russian armored vehicles crossing into Ukraine coupled with this new video make it nearly impossible for Russia to continue to deny their involvement in the region.
The Time reports that Russia is still currently sticking to its story of non-intervention. Russia is denying having any role in sending the captured soldiers to Ukraine. The Russians claim that the soldiers were indeed on a training mission, but accidentally crossed into Ukraine at a portion of the border that is not clearly demarcated.
Russia says that the soldiers in question did not engage with Ukrainian troops, which makes the Russian scenario the true one. The Ukrainians have refused to accept this explanation.
