KIEV, August 19 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev security officials have detained a citizen of Slovakia, who had been fighting with independence supporters in Eastern Ukraine’s city of Ilovaisk, the Interior Ministry reported Tuesday.
An EU and Slovak citizen, and Serb by birth, has been detained near Ilovaisk, an advisor to Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook. The Facebook post specified that the foreigner was a mortar gunner in the militia forces, who claimed to have come to Ukraine, not as a mercenary, but “following his own beliefs,” Gerashchenko said investigators will check the gunner’s story.
The spokesman said "this is the first documented case of the capture of a citizen of a European Union country fighting on the side of terrorists. The Slovak citizen reported that there were more Serbs fighting on the side of the terrorists in Ilovaisk, but he did not know whether they were alive after the overnight assault."
Since mid-April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a military operation against the residents of the southeastern regions of Ukraine that refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government after a February coup.
Last week, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin appealed to the European Union and NATO, asking them to provide military assistance to Ukraine. On Monday, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said it was impossible to respond to Ukraine’s request because NATO only provides military assistance to its members. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that Berlin is also not planning to help Kiev.
