They were never there: Russia's silence for families of troops killed in Ukraine

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

They were never there: Russia's silence for families of troops killed in Ukraine

Alec Luhn in Moscow
theguardian.com, Monday 19 January 2015 17.20 GMT

A growing body of information about Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine has started to reveal a damning picture of Moscow’s intervention in the separatist conflict there, despite Kremlin denials of involvement.

As fighting continued to flare in the east particularly around Donetsk airport, an online organisation has catalogued more than 260 people reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine. The Open Russia organisation , started by the Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has also published a map showing where the dead are from.

The official denial of Russian military participation in Ukraine has pressured the relatives of those who served and died there to keep silent, and could deprive many of them of the benefits to which they are entitled. But some have started to speak out.

Yelena Tumanova, a hospital orderly from Russia’s Mari El republic, said her son Anton Tumanov told her by phone on 10 August that his army unit was being sent to Donetsk. On 20 August, a coffin came back to Mari El with a small window through which she could see his face. His legs had been torn off by an artillery strike, his comrades told her. He was 20 years old.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/19/russia-official-silence-for-families-troops-killed-in-ukraine

[Duckhunter935]

1. The truth will come out

many families are now getting there sons back dead from their "vacation" and will start talking more and more.

[ArcticFox]

2. Not so sure about that.

I mean, if they really want to keep it secret, there are many ways to keep families silent, even many non violent ways.