The Security Service of Ukraine uploaded a video Wednesday of Starkov pleading Russian President Vladimir Putin to help him out of Ukraine.
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In earlier cases of imprisonment of the Russian servicemen, Moscow typically disavows them, saying they were in Donbas on their own will and during their vacations. Russian soldiers have been identified in eastern Ukraine on numerous occasions in the past. “I am only a ‘paper, ‘ a clerical officer”, he says. And now they don’t acknowledge me. They say that there is no one by that name.
The court ruled against a complaint by several activists and journalists that the decree was illegal and aimed at preventing any information about Russia’s military role in eastern Ukraine from being made public.
“I’m not a terrorist”.
“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], I don’t know…”
“I am asking someone to recognize that I am really in the army, and to help me get out of here, to transfer to Russian Federation”, he said. In the interview, the man – whom Euronews also identifies as Starkov – was quoted as describing how he was ordered to go to Ukraine. The truck was on its way from Donetsk to Yasne, a town controlled by separatists.
The real estate mogul said Putin, “has no respect for our president [Barack Obama] whatsoever”.
After months of relative lull, fighting has flared again in parts of eastern Ukraine, with heavy artillery reported near the strategic Azov Sea port of Mariupol.
REUTERS/Host Photo Agency/RIA NovostiThe Kremlin denies any involvement in the fighting in the Ukraine.
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The Kremlin said the focus of the meeting was on attacks on pro-Russian separatists as well as residents of eastern Ukraine, implying that the attacks were being carried out by Ukrainian government forces.
