Russian reporters 'attacked at secret soldier burials'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Russian journalists say they have been attacked while investigating reports that soldiers were secretly buried after being killed in Ukraine.

The paratroopers were buried in a village near the western city of Pskov, where they were based.
...
Vladimir Romensky and Ilya Vasyunin say they were approached by two men who told them that they would "never be found" unless they boarded the next train back to Moscow.
...
Military hospitals in Rostov region and southern Russia were "overflowing", a council spokeswoman said.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28949582

---

Seems pretty obvious Russian soldiers are getting wounded and killed in Ukraine, despite official denials.

[ColesCountyDem]

1. Kick! n/t

[davidpdx]

2. It's terrible that people are getting wounded and killed

but more so that they are doing at the behest of King Vladimir's secret war. Of course the "official" story has to be they were kidnapped in Russia, dragged into Ukraine and THEN they were injured or killed.

[MattSh]

3. Feel better now?

That you've got your "Two Minutes Hate" in?

[LanternWaste]

4. I don't think skepticism of Moscow's story is "two-minute" hate...

I don't think skepticism of Moscow's story is "two-minute" hate...

(although I do realize the visceral satisfaction your theatrical melodramatics may bring)

[karynnj]

5. That was not a hateful post

Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 02:28 PM - Edit history (2)

In 2004, one thing the RW hit Kerry with was that he spoke of going into Cambodia at Christmas time. What was completely lost in 2004 was the context and time Kerry was speaking in. It was in the late 1980s on the floor of the Senate where he was speaking against the covert actions in Central America.

Kerry spoke of young soldiers being in Cambodia while the President denied they were there. In fact, per Brinkley, there is no doubt that Kerry in early 1969 was sent into Cambodia and that, at minimum, he was ferrying special ops to the Cambodian border and back in the Christmas time. Both LBJ and Nixon had denied the US was in Cambodia. What the RW called a lie, may well have been one of the most emotionally honest Senate speeches and it was about things experienced around 20 years before. (The only absolute lie was John O'Neil's speaking of NO swiftboater going to Cambodia when he actually did himself and was on the Nixon tapes speaking to Nixon and getting his praise for doing so. It is hard to believe that that was just poor memory.)

RW gotcha politics aside, the issue Kerry spoke of then is the same here. In the 1980s, our government decided that it was in the interest of the country to fight a covert war in Central America -- just as the Russian government seems to have pursued - to some degree - a covert war in Ukraine. The parallel is not perfect, but what is the same is that men were sent and the government denied what they were doing and they were (in both cases) outside any international conventions about war.

It is true that Kerry never was a typical US soldier. He was already well versed in international law and US policy, but here he was not speaking of what he felt as the US Senator that he was when he spoke or intellectually as the well educated, connected youth that he was, but emotionally as to what he felt then as a young soldier. I suspect that the Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine might have similar feelings. Not to mention, how do the families of these men killed reach any peace with their loved ones death when they can not even openly speak of how they died.

[freshwest]

9. Thanks for a relevant, timely post including important history.

[davidpdx]

11. Unfortunately those that continue to support the conspiracy theories

(joking aside) can't provide proof other than innuendo and false smears against both Ukraine and the US. My guess is these people aren't even Americans.

[karynnj]

12. I agree that this all they have left

I was stunned that some of them ever had the credibility they did, but it has rapidly eroded as things have progressed.

I think you might be right that some are not Americans. There is nothing wrong about that, but it something they should be open and up front with. It is interesting that some of them comment only on issues where Russia has a stake and they never speak of themselves. For most people whose posts you have seen often, you have at least a vague idea where they are coming from. Additionally, I am not alone in saying that the people here who I have met - many people who were or are in the JK group - are consistent with their persona on the internet.

[Ash_F]

14. Damn good post. /nt

[karynnj]

15. Thanks

While I hate what Putin is doing, my heart goes out to the men - in some cases, boys - and their families.

[TwilightGardener]

6. You'd think the fallen soldiers' families would pipe up. Or at least wonder why they don't write

or call.

[Igel]

7. Dozhd' reported on something like this.

Some mother's group has a list of reportedly 400 wounded/killed Russian soldiers.

Lots of random mysterious "accidental deaths" of groups in particular units, but what's telling is that some have been given medals for service. The regs for those medals that are often cited (with links to the text of the legislation) say they're for service during active military maneouvres. Not training drill accidents.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Wow, I didn't know there was such a high count.

[The Magistrate]

13. THis Has Made It To Reuters, Sir

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/28/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-casualties-excl-idUSKBN0GS20320140828

More than 100 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine in a single battle this month while helping pro-Russian separatists fight Ukrainian troops, two members of the Russian presidential human rights council said on Thursday, citing accounts from eyewitnesses and relatives of the dead.

Ella Polyakova and Sergei Krivenko, both members of the council - an advisory body with no legal powers and an uneasy relationship with the Kremlin - said around 300 people were wounded in the same incident on Aug. 13 near the town of Snizhnye, when a column of trucks they were driving, full of ammunition, was hit by a sustained volley of Grad missiles.

Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said on Thursday that active Russian soldiers were fighting with the rebels against Ukrainian troops but were doing so while on vacation.

Polyakova said not one of the soldiers she or her colleagues had spoken to had filled out a form to go on vacation, standard procedure for contract soldiers.

[freshwest]

10. I doubt that families of people killed in covert actions go to the press. It goes with the job.