Ukraine Cites 15,000 Russian Troops and Rebels Amid Putin's 'Take Kiev' Remark

[pampango]

13. The 15,000 figure seems to have come from a Russian NGO, Committee of Soldiers' Mothers.

Thousands of Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine, say Russian human rights groups.

Lyudmila Bogatenkova, head of Soldiers' Mothers in the southern Stavropol region, added: "A large number of people are dying." She said a hospital in the town of Rostov, close to the Ukrainian border, was "overflowing" with wounded soldiers. "Cargo-200 is coming from the Rostov range," she added, referring to the Russian military code for body bags.

Rights groups say that while papers accompanying dead bodies specify gunshot or shrapnel wounds as a cause of death, they do not say where they were sustained.

"These documents are astonishing. Instead of the place of death there is a blank space," Polyakova said. "We saw a similar picture in Chechnya."

Rights groups claim a pattern appears to be emerging: troops are sent on drills close to the border where they are told to change clothes and paint over identification numbers on their tanks before they are deployed to Ukraine. Their final destination appears to be a surprise to many personnel. "Commanders are not always bold enough to tell the truth," said Anatoly Salin, who fought in both Chechen wars and now works with Soldiers' Mothers in the southern Astrakhan region.

The justice ministry last week labelled Soldiers' Mothers of St Petersburg a foreign agent, a term thick with connotations of cold war espionage.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/russian-soldiers-ukraine-rights-groups

If your organization releases inconvenient information, you get labelled as a "foreign agent".