You're reading: SBU has evidence of Russian troops breaking heavy arms withdrawal agreements

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak has said that the SBU has evidence which confirms that Russian soldiers have violated the principal provisions of the Minsk agreements regarding the withdrawal of heavy weapons by Russian troops.

“Space imagery shows 100 mm caliber artillery systems in firing positions along the contact line,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Aug. 28.

Hrytsak said that up to 20 Russian artillery batteries with more than 120 guns and howitzers of prohibited calibers have been used to attack the positions of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) forces.

He noted that ATO positions are usually shelled around 90 times a day.

Hrytsak said that Kyiv had evidence of the participation of Russian military personnel in fighting against ATO forces, as well as the movement of Russian-produced arms and equipment into the territory of Ukraine.

As soon as a Russian soldier or officer is taken prisoner, their family members start disappearing in Russia, and any information about them on social networks is destroyed, Hrytsak said.

He also said that during the conflict in Donbas, military equipment bearing the insignia of specific military units of the Russian army was used, as well as weapons and equipment which the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not possess.

Hrytsak said that Russian BMP-97 Vystrel infantry combat vehicles, four of which were destroyed by ATO forces, Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile systems, spotted close to Donetsk and Luhansk, Konkurs-M antitank missile systems, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles, are regularly destroyed by the Ukrainian military.