MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian soldier Vadim Grigoriev denied Thursday having posted photos in a popular social network that allegedly prove that Russia shelled Ukraine’s territory.
In a post on VKontakte on Wednesday, Grigoriev allegedly boasted of “shelling Ukraine all night” from Rostov Region and included pictures of artillery cannons and munitions. Shortly after, the word “Ukraine” disappeared and later the account was deleted from the site.
Grigoriev said he was surprised by these photos and said he had not visited the site for around a month and asked his relatives to block his account as soon as he learnt about what happened.
“I hear about this for the first time. I cannot know… I have not visited VKontakte for maybe a month already. I visited the site a long time ago. At the moment, I know nothing,” Grigoriev told Rossiya 24 TV Channel.
The soldier denied having posted the photos saying he has a “simple” phone that has bad connection. “To call someone, you need to climb a mountain,” Grigoriev added.
Grigoriev has not ruled out that these could have been his photos, but in any case “they had been made a long time ago, maybe a month or two months ago, may be earlier.”
The soldier said he suspects that his account has been hacked. “Maybe, it has been hacked. I’ve heard it happens when VKontakte accounts are hacked. They often say like this,” Grigoriev said.
US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf claimed at a briefing on Thursday that Washington has “evidence” that artillery shells were fired from the Russian territory on Ukraine.
“I do have a couple of new pieces of information about arms continuing to flow across the border since the shoot-down. We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine. And have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions. It's based on intelligence information,” Harf said.
The West has repeatedly accused Russia of supplying independence supporters with weapons. Moscow has rejected the claims saying it does not supply militia with any weapons and there are no Russian military or any special divisions in Ukraine.
Moscow has also dismissed accusations of interfering in Ukraine’s affairs saying that Russia is not a party in the inter-Ukrainian conflict. President Vladimir Putin said before accusing Russia one has to show real evidence.
