MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – Statements made by a number of human rights activists about the alleged deaths of a hundred of Russian servicemen in Ukraine were “hooey,” a high-ranking Russian defense ministry source told RIA Novosti Friday.
Russian media reports on the issue published earlier this week cited information obtained from Ella Polyakova, who heads a committee to protect the rights of conscripts in St. Petersburg.
“All statements that her representatives had made about the alleged deaths of Russian servicemen in Ukraine, with reference to ‘their own sources,’ are nothing more than quotes from information resources of the Ukrainian propaganda,” the official said, dismissing the reports as “hooey.” Since mid-April, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the southeastern regions of Ukraine that refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government after a February coup. Kiev. Some Western countries have accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to independence supporters.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected the accusations that it has been interfering in the situation in Ukraine. Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that no evidence of the Russian military being present in Ukraine has ever been presented.
Over 2,500 people, including the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash, have been killed and more than 6,000 injured since the start of Kiev’s military operation against the militias in eastern Ukraine in mid-April, according to the United Nations.
