You're reading: SBU offers fresh evidence that Russian forces involved in war

As if any more evidence is needed, the Security Service of Ukraine says it has additional proof of Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine. The service, known as the SBU, revealed fresh details that include names and units of soldiers, their pictures and advanced weapons that were taken from some of them.

According to a presentation delivered by the SBU at a news briefing on May 21, the third separate special brigade of Russia’s military intelligence, or GRU, has been conducting reconnaissance and subversive missions in Luhansk Oblast since March 2014.

Two officers from the brigade, Capt. Evgeniy Yerofeyev and Sgt. Aleksandr Aleksandrov, were captured by Ukrainian forces on May 16 following a firefight near Shchastya in Luhansk Oblast. The ultimate goal of their 16-person group led by Yerofeyev was to prepare an armed seizure of the town, according to the SBU, which said their unit crossed into Ukraine in March from Rostov Oblast in Russia.

The Russians also ambushed Ukrainian forces, went on hit-and-run missions, laid mines and set road bombs near inhabited areas, according to the report. “They are saboteurs, whose task is killing Ukrainian military servicemen and civilians,” SBU counterintelligence chief Vitaliy Naida said at the briefing.

The report contains names ranks and shows photos of 14 members of Yerofeyev’s group. In total, the brigade consists of 220 soldiers.

According to Naida, the brigade is well trained. In his words, they have extensive combat experience, having served in Tajikistan, the two Chechen wars, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

“We reveal this data so that Russia knows that we are informed, and that we will pass this information to international courts as evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian GRU in Ukraine,” Naida said. “Russia can try to distance itself from its troops, who are sent here as cannon fodder, but the Security Service has got indisputable proof.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev were active servicemen.

According to Naida, on May 16 Russian troops used gunfire and mortars against their own positions to prevent the two from being taken captive alive. A Ukrainian junior sergeant was killed, and three were wounded during the intense skirmish. Russia had one GRU sergeant killed and three officers wounded, besides the two who were detained.

Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev were taken to the hospital in Kyiv. They now are set to be charged with terrorism, a crime that carries a maximum life sentence.

“It doesn’t matter how hard it is to feel the pain for our soldiers, who were killed, we will provide the detained (militants) all required medical help, according to international conventions, and in terms of Ukrainian law,” Markian Lubkivskyi, a senior adviser with the Security Service, said at the briefing.

He said that Ukrainian authorities attempted calling their relatives with numbers provided by

Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev. Only Yerofeyev’s wife and mother responded.

Aleksandrov’s wife didn’t pick up the phone. However, Russian TV showed an interview of a woman claiming to be Aleksandrov’s wife saying that her husband had already left military service, and that she didn’t know where he was.

According to Lubkivsky, Katerina Aleksandrova also works for the GRU and in the same unit as her husband, therefore, she had to know his whereabouts.

He also displayed a Russian-made VSS Vintorez silenced sniper rifle and Kizlyar knife that were confiscated from the captured GRU officers. GRU soldiers are usually armed with the items are only produced in Russia, according to Lubkivsky.

Ammunition found in the rifle has no labeling, making it impossible to trace the weapon, he added.
To prove that the soldiers from Yerofeyev’s group were dressed in Russian uniform, the report compared their fatigues with six GRU officers that were killed near Volnovakha on May 5.

On May 20, opposition activists in Moscow Ruslan Leviev and Vadim Korovin, said they had discovered fresh graves of several Russian special forces officers. They released photographs and video from a graveyard in Tambov Oblast. In their words, the Russian officers “served together, were friends and they all died together on May 5, 2015” near Volnovokha.

“This is our response to Russian propaganda that says there are no troops in Ukraine,” Leviev told the Kyiv Post by phone. “We want to show society that our Defense Ministry is literally abandoning its own troops by disavowing them like this. … We are showing society the consequences of this war.”

Ukrainian forces also reported on May 21 that they shot down a Forepost Russian drone near the town of Pisky in Donetsk Oblast. In a video, posted by the SBU, the label of the drone is shown indicating it was produced by Ural Works of Civil Aviation. It is one of only 11 in Russia’s arsenal and is worth $6 million, according to a news release by Dnipro-1 Battalion, which took part in shooting the aerial device down.

Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn contributed to the story.