Russian army in Donbass. The military of the Russian Federation in the war in the Donbass. Basic investigations. Who got on the radar of journalists

Recently, we, the Russians, and the entire civilized world, learned the news, long-awaited for the current authorities of the former Ukraine. Namely, "reinforced concrete" evidence of the presence of regular Russian troops in the Donbass!

But this evidence neither the authorities of the former Ukraine, nor their Western curators could show the world almost 4 years!?When, it seems, even "Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko admitted that there are no regular units of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine."

And, it seems, "in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Tuka admitted that there are no Russian troops on the territory of Donbass"

And yet, earlier, neither the Kiev courts, at the periodic requests of individual deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, nor the UN court could recognize this.

... As known, against all this, U.S. State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said: - You need to clearly understand that there are Russian troops in the Donbass .(2)..

That is, once again - despite the lack of all kinds of evidence, the fact that for almost 4 years the intelligence of neither the former Ukraine, nor Western countries, nor numerous journalists, nor American satellites and drones could confirm this ...

Volker said, period!

And really - such an important person, the whole "Special Representative of the US State Department for Ukraine", and not to believe?! It's just "moveton"!

But ... after all, if you think about it - he is absolutely right! Volker is an enemy, but he is saying a completely objective thing!

because even if these troops consist of yesterday's militias, even if their tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and other weapons are seized from the Armed Forces of Ukraine - on the territory of the former Ukraine they protect the Russians, the Russian world, and, therefore, Russia.

Means - These are our Russian troops! And it doesn't matter how many there are. We do know - even one person in our army can withstand a bunch of enemy soldiers!

"This Machine Gun Fighter... is called Bato Dashidorzhiev, he is Buryat, during the war with Georgia he served in the reconnaissance company of the 71st motorized rifle regiment.

His photo in 2008 bypassed all the world's media, he alone went against the Georgian military column and won!

After the defeat of the Georgian army near Tskhinvali, its units retreated to Gori, but stumbled upon a Russian checkpoint.

The photo shows how a soldier of the Russian Armed Forces, a stocky and tanned Asian, alone, at the ready with a light machine gun, confronts the motorized infantry of the Georgian Armed Forces.

The officers of the column threatened the machine gunner to get out of the way and let them through, to which he sent them: "Go to x ..., b ... b."

Then foreign media journalists who were moving with the column tried to talk to the machine gunner, and received the same answer.

As a result, the column of Georgian special forces turned around and moved back to where it came from".

And recently, when 16 special forces from the Russian Federation confronted 300 Syrian militants for a day"? (4)

So - again, if suddenly someone does not understand ...

Even if it will be only a few people, even if they have never served in the regular army, but with weapons in their hands, risking their lives, they protect the Russians - these are our, Russian troops!

Every time since 2014, Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk has been asking the Russian president questions about the presence of the Russian army in the Donbass. Here's how his questions and Putin's answers have changed over the past four years.

Questions and answers are not complete. Comparison published "Present Tense".

2014

– Roman Tsymbalyuk, Ukrainian agency "UNIAN". The first question is about the punitive operation that you staged in the east of our country, and mainly against the Russian-speaking population. It is no secret that Russian servicemen and Russian militants are fighting there, who arrange all this. how many Russian troops did you send there? How many technicians did you send there? How many of them died on the territory of Ukraine? As the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, what would you say to the families of the dead Russian officers and soldiers?

Putin: All people who, at the call of their hearts, fulfill their duty or voluntarily take part in some kind of hostilities, including in the south-east of Ukraine, are not mercenaries, because they do not receive money for this.

In our public mind, what is happening in the southeast of Ukraine is indeed a punitive operation, but it is carried out by today's Kiev authorities, and not vice versa. After all, it was not the militias of the southeast who sent their combat units to Kiev, but, on the contrary, the Kiev authorities drove the armed forces to the southeast, using a multiple launch rocket system, artillery and combat aircraft.

2015

– Vladimir Vladimirovich, in the context of your repeated statements that there are no Russian military personnel in the Donbass, I would like to send you greetings from Captain Erofeev and Sergeant Alexandrov, the third brigade, the city of Togliatti. Tell me, will you exchange them for Sentsov, Savchenko, Afanasiev, Kolchenko, Klykh? And this list is far from complete.

Putin: Regarding exchanges. We have never said that there are no people involved in resolving certain issues, including in the military sphere, but this does not mean that regular Russian troops are present there. Feel the difference. This is the first.

Second. You named two or three people that you propose to change, and then you started a long list of who you want to change them for. First, the exchange must be of equal value. And secondly, together with our colleagues, we must calmly discuss all this, talk and continue what we have always insisted on, and what the President of Ukraine proposes: we need to release people who are being held both on the one hand and on the other. sides. First of all, this concerns people from the Donbass, from the south-east of Ukraine, and Ukrainian servicemen who are detained in these territories. But the exchange must be equal here.

2016

– You often say that you were forced to protect Russian speakers in Crimea and Donbass. You said last year that you never hid the fact that you sent people to Donbass to solve military issues. Specify where it is written in the Minsk agreements, and do you understand that if you ever retire, the Russians will remain occupiers for the Ukrainians.

Putin: It would be good to ensure that in the Donbass the Ukrainian army is not considered occupiers in their own country. Here's what to think about.

2017

- This is not the first time I ask you a question. And the trouble is only one thing: that you do not answer all the questions. And earlier you said that you never hid the fact that you send people to Donbass to solve military issues, in life it is called to kill citizens of Ukraine, and in principle everything is clear here, and our army knows what to do with these people, with your solvers, or resolvers. If you still win the elections, you may continue to take such an absurd position on Donbass, on peacekeepers, and in practice, your people who resolve issues there, they are engaged in the massacre of the population of Donbass, and you should not be afraid of this, because the liberated Ukrainian cities, like Slavyansk and Mariupol, live a wonderful peaceful life. Thank you.

Putin: There is no Russian army on the territory of Donbass. But certain military police formations have indeed been created there, which are self-sufficient and ready to repel any large-scale military actions against the Donbass. We believe that this is in the interests of those people who live in this territory, because if they do not have such an opportunity, the massacre that you spoke about, and even worse than in Srebrenica, will be carried out by the so-called nationalist battalions. And nothing will stop them, including the appeal, as some of my Western colleagues advised me, the appeal, in the event of developments of this kind, to international human rights organizations, and we are well aware of this.

The other day, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said that the OSCE did not record the presence of the Russian army in Donbas, however, supplies of military equipment from outside continue.

« We keep saying that this is a hybrid conflict. This means that there is a hybrid military presence there. When people ask me or other OSCE representatives about whether there are Russian troops in the Donbas, we answer that there is no Russian army as such", - said the OSCE Secretary General.

Relatively " supplies of military equipment from outside"Zanier found an "iron" argument: " They (the army of Novorossia - ed.) always have fuel and ammunition, that is, they take it somewhere. And we see that among the militants there are those who came from other regions. They say they come on their own. We usually have our own views on who and what they are fighting for. But such people deny any official link to the Russian army.».

In turn, the Secretary General admitted that the OSCE cannot officially "tie" all these phenomena to Russia, although " support for the LDNR is obvious».

By the way, Lamberto Zannier announced that there is no Russian army on the territory of Donbass back in February 2015, that is, a year and a half ago. " If you ask me if I saw the movement and the presence of Russian units in this territory, then I will tell you that I did not see", - he said on February 13, 2015 within the framework of the forum "15 years of the OSCE project coordinator in Ukraine: a look into the past to determine a further strategy for helping the country."

And a year before, on January 29, 2014, the then Chief of the General Staff - Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko, during a briefing for foreign military attachés, officially admitted that Russian troops were not participating in hostilities in the South-East of the country. " Taking into account the fact that it is Muzhenko who is directly in charge of the military operation in the South-East of Ukraine, his statement is already a legal fact that crossed out all the numerous accusations from the high tribunes of NATO and Western capitals about the alleged “Russian military invasion” into Ukraine”, - this is how the official representative of the Russian military department, General Igor Konashenkov, commented on Muzhenko’s statement then.

In total, in 2014, and in 2015, and in 2016, it was and remains obvious that there was no Russian army in the Donbass. In particular, this was and is recognized by both the "generals of sand pots" and the leadership of the "blind-deaf-dumb" OSCE mission.

Another "lyrical-military" digression. When, in February 2015, the OSCE Secretary General confessed in spirit that he had not seen Russian troops in Donbas, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of his friendly agency, NATO, on air of the Kommersant FM radio station, claimed that the intelligence of the alliance countries had “documentary data” about the military presence Russia in Donbas. Then the NATO members found an “iron and indisputable” argument, they say, the militias would not have been able to achieve the successes they are demonstrating without Russian support.

« Our intelligence assets provide documented evidence of Russia's military presence in eastern Ukraine. We see this from independent sources, independent journalists, but we also get this information from NGOs that tell us about dead Russian servicemen in Ukraine", - he said.

Of course, the NATO Secretary General did not cite specific facts. Therefore, the basis of the “documentary data” of the alliance was “evidence” collected by the notorious Ukrainian media and characters such as the crazy “human rights activist from Murmansk”, the founder of the group “Gruz 200” Elena Vasilyeva, who “buried” dozens of football teams and equestrian horses during this war. -artillery divisions of tankers of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.

However, the war continues. So with whom, after all, is Ukraine at war? With whom, if even American journalists who visited the Donbass did not find traces of the presence of the Russian army there? For example, this is eloquently evidenced by a report by American Nick Shifrin from the DNR, published by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, which is one of the most respected American independent media. The video aired on July 5, 2016 on the PBS newscast:

« At least one militia member is killed every day. Positional trench warfare is going on here according to the same rules as a hundred years ago. Here in this place there should be thousands of Russian soldiers, the same ones that officials from the State Department tell us about. But they are invisible. There is none of them”, says Nick Shifrin.

Remember the “bearded” joke with the photo of the Belarusian forest? “Do you see partisans here? Not? And they are here!”

Therefore, the Russian military in the Donbass exists only in the inflamed subconsciousness of the alcoholic President Poroshenko and his retinue, as well as those who form the misanthropic policy of the Ukrainian junta.

For example, on June 30, 2015, President Poroshenko spoke in an interview with an Italian newspaper about the scale of Russian aggression. These “scales” turned out to be so “large-scale” that both Italy, Russia, and the same Ukraine laughed at the figure voiced by the confectioner for a long time. " Today, on Putin's orders, 200,000 people are on our territory, equipped with an arsenal of tanks, including systems for launching anti-aircraft missiles. One of them shot down a Malaysian civilian airliner last year.", Poroshenko said in particular.

It is noteworthy that two weeks earlier, on June 8, 2015, in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the weary general of the Ukrainian army Stepan Poltorak reported that “ the grouping of the Russian Armed Forces and illegal armed formations in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions has about 42.5 thousand people". Forty-two and a half thousand - no more, no less. However, after 12 days, this "group" in some strange way increased by almost 4.5 times - up to two hundred thousand people, about which Poroshenko, in fact, complained to the Italians. And there are hundreds of such examples of political verbiage.

It should be assumed that due to the “digital incompatibility” in the statements, and also because all more or less sane people (including even US journalists and the OSCE Secretary General) suspect about “setting up the State Department” in the context of “the Russian army Square”, on September 8, 2016 (four days ago), the Pentagon appointed an adviser to the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Stepan Poltorak. They became the former head of the Central Command of the US Army, General John Abizaid. According to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, Abizaid will assist the Ukrainian minister in the fight against corruption, civilian control of the army and reforms. It should be noted that the appointment was made within the framework of the agreement on cooperation in the field of defense between the United States and Ukraine. In a word, Poltorak now has a consultant. This is not a stoned misunderstanding for you Zoryan Shkiryak as an adviser to the blogger of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov! Glory to Ukraine!

Are there Russian troops in the Donbas or Reflections on the marines

Photos from open sources

Viktor Trushkin, blogger

Russia stubbornly denies the presence of its troops on the territory of Donbass. So today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that there is not a single fact confirming the participation of Russian troops in the war in Ukraine.

"Troops and armaments... We hear this many times. Every time I say, if you say this, show the facts. No one can or does not want to show us the facts. I don't know," Lavrov said. According to him, in order for Russia to recognize the presence of its soldiers in the Donbas and the supply of weapons there, it is necessary to provide it with "material evidence."

It is not clear what kind of evidence Lavrov wants, but there is already plenty of it on the Web. Photos of confiscated documents of Russian servicemen, posts of Russian soldiers in social networks (including about the death of children), the detention in August of "lost" Russian paratroopers, etc. The supply of weapons to the Donbass from Russia is already out of the question. According to the words of the head of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov, militants in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions have up to 990 armored combat vehicles, artillery systems, including multiple launch rocket systems - 694 units, Tochka-U missile systems - 4, anti-aircraft missile systems up to 57 units. Of course, the numbers can be disputed, because it is very difficult to calculate the technique. But even if they are two times smaller, how could it be possible to "squeeze out" (as it is customary to say among the militants) so much equipment and weapons in the Ukrainian army?

Soldiers with Marine Corps patches

And recently, a new reason has appeared to say that the Russian military is actively helping the terrorists. Earlier, it was repeatedly reported (including by the Armed Forces of Ukraine) that the Donetsk airport was being stormed by Russian special forces. Especially these conversations have become more frequent in recent days, when real hell has come to DAP. According to the fighters, the terrorists have changed their tactics of fighting at the airport, their actions have become much more coordinated, more efficient, which was not observed before and close.

And now the Russian channel "Russia 1" showed a story in which they showed the militants allegedly in the new airport terminal. We will not delve into the meaning of the plot, because these data are categorically denied in the Ukrainian army, and the video itself, very likely, was filmed in a two-story bombed-out building of the Metro supermarket. A few frames from this video are important to us - where the patch on the uniform of one of the "militants" is visible.

On the right hand of the soldier is the insignia of the Marine Corps of Russia. Patch with an anchor on a black background and the inscription "Russian Marine Corps. Where we are, there is victory." Such badges are worn by coastal troops of the Russian Navy, who are trained to conduct combat operations as part of amphibious assault forces. They also have other stripes, the following samples.

Photos from open sources

Of course, it is impossible to say that Russian marines are fighting at the Donetsk airport, based on this video, with firm certainty. After all, you can buy a uniform, for example, in a military department. But it is possible to assume that these are really elite units of the Russian army.

Who got on the radar of journalists

Back in the fall, the first data appeared on the transfer, first to the border with Ukraine, and then to the territory of Donbass, of individual formations of Russian marine brigades.

The Russian Marine Corps has four brigades (155th Pacific Fleet, 336th Baltic Fleet, 61st Northern Fleet and 810th Black Sea Fleet) and several separate regiments, battalions and companies. At present, the number of Russian marines is about 8 thousand people, but the mobilization component has been completely abolished.

The InfoNapalm website, which collects information about the movement of Russian troops, reported on September 10 that the 200th separate special-purpose brigade of the Northern Fleet from Murmansk arrived at the border with Ukraine. Later, on September 19, along with the 200th Brigade ON, the 61st Marine Brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy was also mentioned. "It is difficult to judge the size and composition of the unit of the 61st brigade, located by this time in the Kamensk-Shakhtinsk region of the Rostov region, but it can be assumed that this is a consolidated company of "contract soldiers" reinforced with various types of support to the level of a company-tactical group," said in the message.

The well-known investigative blogger Irakli Komakhidze wrote in November that the transfer of the Marines of the 336th brigade to the Rostov region on the border with Ukraine began in early November by military transport aircraft from St. Petersburg, where they had been sent from Baltiysk a little earlier.

InfoNapalm

"A little earlier, coastal units of the Navy, the Black Sea Fleet - the 810th Marine Brigade and the 8th Artillery Regiment (occupied Crimea), the Northern Fleet - the 61st Marine Brigade and the 200th Special Purpose Brigade (Rostov Apparently, and this is not enough, this time they were joined by the Baltic Red Navy from the 336th Marine Brigade of military unit 06117, the location is the Kaliningrad region of Baltiysk. The alleged composition of the unit is the company tactical group (RTR ), staffed mainly by contract servicemen of the airborne assault battalion," Komakhidze wrote.

The 336th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy, military unit 06117, is deployed in Baltiysk. The brigade consists of a tank battalion, a reconnaissance battalion, two marine battalions, an air assault battalion, two artillery battalions (one self-propelled), an anti-aircraft missile and artillery battalion and other support units. The main weapons and equipment are T-72, BTR-80/82 tanks, Gvozdika self-propelled guns, and Nona self-propelled mortars. The number of personnel of the brigade is just over a thousand people.

The 61st separate brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy is stationed in the village of Sputnik on the Kola Peninsula. The brigade includes a marine battalion, an air assault battalion, a reconnaissance battalion, a tank battalion, two self-propelled artillery battalions, an anti-aircraft missile and artillery battalion, as well as support units and two framed (317th and 318th) separate battalions of marines .

The 382nd Marine Battalion, based in Temryuk, allegedly participated in the capture of Belbek in March 2014 during the well-known events in Crimea.

Komakhidze wrote that the marines were transferred from the main base of the Rostov group of forces, located in the area of the Millerovo airfield. The active movement of the columns was noted from the beginning of November. "It should be noted that the Russian military command is trying to carry out the transfer of units directly to the border zone covertly, using the central roads to a minimum (so as not to get into the lenses of amateur cameras)," the blogger wrote, also publishing photos.

Irakly Komakhovsky

The Elite is Losing

There were also reports on the Internet about the losses of Russian marines. And if the National Security and Defense Council usually gave general figures without details, then bloggers and volunteers often published more specific data (it is difficult to talk about the reliability of which, however).

Russian blogger Oleg Yarchuk in early December reported that near Gorlovka the 336th Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Federation, the 61st Marine Brigade of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation and the company tactical group of the 137th Parachute Regiment of the 106th Air Assault Division The Airborne Forces of the Russian Federation suffered significant losses of personnel, more than 30 people.

Georgy Tikhy, a freelance journalist working for the German television channel ARD, writes that Ukrainian fighters at checkpoints 29 and 31 are also sure that regular Russian armed forces are advancing on them. "We were not far from the 29th, -31st b/p ... They have absolute confidence that it is the regular Russian army that is advancing (not from the Internet - they had captured Russian soldiers who were exchanged). We are trying to get convincing evidence Therefore, for now - "for what I bought it, for that I sold it." It seems like 2 brigades of Russians gathered there, according to various sources, from 8 to 40 tanks, "-

A Russian military group is stationed in the Donbass, equal in power to the armies of European NATO member countries. This was announced on the air of the 112 Ukraine TV channel, said the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios.

According to him, Russia has delivered hundreds of artillery systems and tanks to the republics. "Tanks - 650 pieces, armored fighting vehicles - 1310 pieces, artillery of various calibers (including large-caliber, prohibited by the Minsk agreements) - almost 500 barrels, multiple launch rocket systems - almost 260 units, anti-aircraft missile systems - up to 100 units."

In addition, according to Matios, there are 11,000 Russians on the territory of Donbass that is not controlled by Kiev, 3,000 of which are military personnel. “The Russian Federation is currently in the Donbass in the amount of almost three thousand people as part of two battalion tactical groups, one company tactical group, which, in addition to the units listed above, are armed with almost 200 tanks, 400 armored combat vehicles, 140 pieces of artillery and the latest models anti-aircraft missile systems," he said.

Recall that similar assessments were presented by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. “Our intelligence confirms that the minimum level of regular Russian troops in the occupied territory of Donbass is about 3,000 military,” he said at a meeting with the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

It is worth noting that in early September, the speaker of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladislav Seleznev announced a much larger number of Russian troops in the territory of Donbass. According to his estimates, up to 6,000 Russian servicemen are in the Donbass, while “professional Russian military personnel constantly arrive in territories not controlled by Kiev, including in the governing bodies.”

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that Russia is not a party to the conflict in the Donbass, which is exclusively internal to Ukraine and does not provide material, financial or other assistance.

At the same time, the Kiev officials themselves have repeatedly admitted that, despite the support of a strong belief about the presence of Russian troops in the Donbass, there is no evidence of this and there was not.

In early May, the Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons GeorgeTuka officially recognized the impossibility of confirming the presence of Russian troops on the territory of Donbass, noting that not a single international court in its decisions uses the clichés adopted in Ukraine about “Russian occupation”, “Russian invasion”, etc.

“The phrases “everyone knows this” or “everyone knows this already” are not taken into account there. When we say that there (in Donbass - ed.) there are 5-10 thousand regular Russian troops, where is the evidence? Weapon - yes. And the troops? Grushniki (Russian servicemen of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation convicted in Ukraine in 2016 Evgeny Erofeev and Alexander Alexandrov. - ed.), whom we exchanged - yes. But they, it turned out, were formally fired. Although we all seem to know this. But, from the point of view of formality, in a court case, this is not evidence. Therefore, irrefutable evidence must be collected bit by bit, ”Tuka said then in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

To a direct question from a journalist of the publication whether there are formally Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, Tuka answered in the negative: “We haven’t proven this in court yet.”

Later, in early September, the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier stated that the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) could not confirm the presence of Russian troops in the Donbass:

According to political scientist, member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Rodina party, director of the Freedom Institute Fyodor Biryukov, the only "national idea" of the Kiev authorities is a war with Russia.

- Kiev is waging a cold war with Moscow, but passes it off as a hot one, accusing the Russian Federation of a military invasion. Therefore, the latest statements by the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine about the presence of a Russian military group in the Donbass are adequate to the goals set for the Ukrainian regime as a whole. And the main goal here is to convince the EU and NATO that it is Moscow, and not Kiev, that is sabotaging the Minsk agreements. That it is Russia, and not Ukraine, that is the aggressor in the protracted conflict between Kiev and Donbass.

"SP":— Isn't the "threat" too exaggerated?

- The comparison of the size of the "Russian group" with the military power of NATO, which is clearly exaggerated from the point of view of common sense, is explained by the elementary laws of propaganda. To pay attention, it is necessary to exaggerate any problem, any danger. This is what the Kiev regime has been doing throughout its existence. Propaganda does not need proof, emotions are important here, in this case, a feeling of fear before the power of the mythical “Russian invasion”. Russian troops, like Gog and Magog, have dug in in the Donbass and are preparing to enslave the whole of Europe - this is Kiev's current message to its Western curators. In essence, the current statement of Matios is a mixture of the screams of a professional mourner with "velvet" moral terror. The Ukrainian authorities are asking European bureaucrats and NATO members to step up their support while intimidating them with the “Russian threat.” And the “Russian threat” is today a fairly popular and convenient transnational meme. Behind all these official lies, it's not hard to see the truth. The truth is that the Kiev regime is simply unable to find a way out of the conflict with the Donbass.

The territories of the DPR and LPR have proved their effectiveness in repelling the attacks of the Kiev militants, despite all the traps of the so-called truces. But if Kiev admits that it can do nothing about the Donbass, it will thereby declare its political collapse. So how do you explain the problem and still save face? And this is where the “Russian threat” comes in handy. Official Kiev habitually winds up a hurdy-gurdy: “These are Russians, Russians have come, to the rescue!” It must be admitted that in the EU and NATO they love this pop genre of songs about the “Russian threat”, they listen with pleasure and can even applaud the performer. But the Europeans are no longer in a hurry to invest serious political and financial resources in Kiev. The catastrophic inefficiency of the current Kiev government, the fakeness of the unsuccessful and harmful state of Ukraine in its current state is too obvious.

“Pay attention, for several months Ukrainian propaganda has been telling how everything is falling apart in the Donbass, “militants are fleeing en masse,” which is why they are decomposed and understaffed. And then suddenly - bam! - and there again, out of nowhere, a huge "Russian army" appeared, which will plug NATO into the belt, - notes Director of the Center for Eurasian Studies Vladimir Kornilov.

- Where did she come from in a couple of weeks? From the exercises, the "West" was transferred secretly from everyone, or what? .. Of course, the propagandists do not believe in this. But when the time comes to beg for money and weapons in the West, what other legend to voice?

"SP":— Doesn't it sound too implausible? If there were such power in the Donbass, would the war still continue? Or do they think in Kiev that they can calmly hang noodles on everyone's ears, that for the fourth year they have been successfully fighting with almost the most powerful army in the world? Maybe it would be worth abandoning the obvious exaggeration?

“Ukrainian propaganda cannot be without lies. Kiev has been accustomed since the time of the "Maidan" that you can hang noodles on your ears with impunity. The most amazing thing is that the media continue to rebroadcast all this without any critical analysis, and in Ukraine there is still an audience that believes in frank stories.

"SP":— Kiev officials are constantly confused in their assessments of the presence of Russian troops in the Donbass, some even openly admit that they are not there. Is it the initiative of individual officials? Why is there no strict general line on this?

- Yes, it sometimes happens that the same official in one speech declares directly opposite theses. It's not about conflict between them. It's the lack of common sense...

"SP":— At a meeting with US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko also spoke about 3,000 Russian troops in the Donbass. What for? Does he really hope to convince Trump of this? Still, probably, American intelligence works better than Ukrainian intelligence here, and it’s stupid to try to impose on Washington your incomprehensibly taken data ...

Yes, American intelligence is well aware that there are no Russian troops in the Donbass. Such statements are made for the public, not for the Pentagon...

"SP":— RecentlyOSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier declared that there were no Russian troops in the Donbass. To what extent are the West consistent on this issue? There are no troops, but there is "aggression"?

- If American propaganda and Congress easily find traces of "Russian aggression" even in their election campaign, then what can we say about the military campaign in the Donbass! At least there are Russian citizens there! This is enough for propagandists.

Who is Matios to make such statements? A great commander in the rank of grand admiral without the fleet of Tenyukh-Krymsky or generalissimo without the army of Heletey-Ilovaisky? Is he somehow able to assess the military power of the enemy at the professional level? - asks the deputy editor-in-chief of the Novaya Zemlya magazine (Donetsk, DPR), permanent expert of the Izborsk Club of Novorossia Alexander Dmitrievsky.

- No, he is a simple prosecutor, whose duties include monitoring the observance of the law in the Ukrainian army. And instead of doing what is prescribed in his job descriptions, Pan Matios climbs into politics, and thanks to him the Armed Forces of Ukraine have turned into Augean stables. It is not for nothing that it is said that the Almighty created a thief, and the evil one created a prosecutor: this is just about Matios.

"SP":— Ukrainian officials are constantly confused in their testimony about the number of Russian troops in the Donbass, some even admit that they are not there. How to explain such inconsistency?

- Here's how to explain that there are no Russian troops in the Donbass. For if they were there, there would be no discord in the assessments of Ukrainian officials.

"SP":— The militiamen of the DPR and LPR have repeatedly noted the presence on the Ukrainian side of not only instructors from Western countries, but also mercenaries. Why does the Ukrainian side avoid talking about this topic?

— According to Art. 47 (2) of the first Additional Protocol of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions, a mercenary differs from foreign volunteers in that he is not part of the troops of one of the conflicting parties, but from foreign military specialists, which are, among other things, military instructors and advisers, in that which does not have the appropriate powers at the level of interstate agreements. That is, a mercenary is a nobody and there is no way to call him, who is most often entrusted with the dirtiest work. Will the Ukrainian state expand on the participation of such a category in a punitive operation? Of course no.

"SP":— At one time, Vladimir Putin admitted that there are people in the Donbass "who deal with certain issues, including in the military sphere." To what extent can this be taken as confirmation of Russia's presence in the Donbass?

- Let's start with the fact that the presence of foreign advisers and other specialists for any of the parties in the conflict zone does not contradict international law. The parties have the right to ask for help and have the right to receive it, so speculation about the Russian presence in the Donbass is groundless. As for the local population in the Donbass, they unequivocally stand for a full-fledged Russian presence and a full-fledged Ukrainian absence east of the conditional Kupyansk-Izium-Berdyansk line.

"SP":— In the West, they also say that they do not have data on the presence of Russian troops, but they also freely operate with the clichés adopted in Ukraine about “Russian aggression”, etc. How is this to be understood? Well, politicians in Kiev are not quite adequate, why should they imitate?

- It was once said that the more brazen the lie, the more they will believe in it. This war against Donbass was unleashed by the West, and it needs justifications to continue it. Therefore, the myth of Russian aggression is being exploited...