A member of the armed forces of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic stands guard near a destroyed vehicle at a bus station after shelling in Donetsk, February 11, 2015. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Maksymilian Czuperski , John Herbst , Alina Polyakova , and Damon Wilson, Newsweek: Putin’s Secret Warriors: Russian Soldiers Sent to Fight in Ukraine
On March 2, 2015, U.S. Army Europe Commander Ben Hodges estimated that 12,000 Russian soldiers, including “military advisers, weapons operators and combat troops,” are active in eastern Ukraine.
There have been hundreds, likely thousands, of Russian citizens who have voluntarily crossed the border into Ukraine on their own accord. Putin has confirmed this, and many eager Russians even filled out online applications to join the separatist ranks—that is how easy it is to become a separatist fighter in Ukraine.
The Russian military is sending its soldiers across the border to mix with Russian-instigated separatist forces in Ukraine. Once in eastern Ukraine, these soldiers are no longer considered Russian; rather they are told to refer to themselves as “local defense forces,” aiding the separatist soldiers with additional manpower and Russian equipment.
WNU Editor: The full Atlantic Council report can be read and downloaded here. What's my take .... at the risk of sounding repetitive I am not surprised that there are Russian military units in Ukraine. Ukraine is now filled with foreign forces from many countries, reports that Russian special forces may have been deployed in eastern Ukraine with that some of them involved in some of the critical battles of the past year does not surprise me. As to U.S./NATO claims that there 12,000 Russian solders there .... on that number I am very skeptical .... that is a large number of soldiers that would be impossible to hide. In almost every video on the front from the rebel side that I seen since the start of the war .... most of the soldiers who are fighting are middle aged men who also speak in the Russian dialect for that region. The Russian soldiers/volunteers that I spot .... which is rare .... I spot them because they are always younger and their Russian accent is distinctly different from how the locals speak it. In terms of large concentrations of foreign soldiers on the rebel side .... the Chechens have that one cornered .... and the Chechen government has made no secret that a few hundred of their soldiers are fighting in the Ukraine war.
The argument that there are Russians/Chechens/etc. in Ukraine is an important news story .... but it is not the main story. The Ukraine war is primarily a war between Ukrainians on one side, and Russian Ukrainians on the other side .... and it is these two sides that in the end must come to some form of an agreement. Unfortunately .... as the war grinds into its second year .... I see both sides becoming even more determined in their cause, and I am now resigned to the depressing realization that this is a conflict that is going to last for a few more years.
Update: U.S. Trains Ukrainian Forces on Russia's Doorstep — And Moscow Isn't Happy -- NBC
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