Alexander Verkhovsky about sending militants to Ukraine

Director of the Information and Analytical Center "Sova" Alexander Verkhovsky together with his colleagues for a long time researched how way Russian imperial-nationalist organizations contributed to the sending of militants to the ranks of the separatists in the east of Ukraine.

For the first time after the outbreak of the military conflict in the Donbass state structures of Russia, if not directly formed volunteer - or mercenary - units, then at least patronized process: “It is quite clear that carte blanche was given to some organizers. The most obvious is with sending large groups there Cossacks. These are organized people who are well known to the locals. to the authorities, and not to the local ones either, who are simply continuously back and forth traveled, kept apart there, even they have their own territory there was a certain kind there, in the “LPR”. It couldn't possibly be that everything this happened without any carte blanche from the authorities, including the military, who nevertheless stood along the border.

The researcher says that "most of the people who fought there not as military personnel, but as volunteers - let's call them so generically - passed through the channels that were controlled by the authorities: through the draft board, Cossack formations or some sort of volunteer groups, which, nevertheless, worked clearly under control.

“In particular, this applies to groups that have openly stated that they are engaged in the supply of humanitarian aid - they collected money, Their tents were everywhere. All this was centralized. This visible, if only because the lists of goods, items that supposed to be collected, and which were published by a wide variety of groups - from the ultra-right to the Communist Party - were simply identical. Actually in fact, all this went into a certain one boiler, and it was clearly controlled by the wrong people. not by others, but by someone else and, I think, ultimately, state,” says Alexander Verkhovsky.

The director of the SOVA center is sure that the mass movement of "volunteers" across the Russian-Ukrainian border in the absence of connivance there will be no official Russian bodies: “If it were clearly stated, and several times on someone's example it is demonstrated that the border If you can't move, then you would stop. Most, of course, volunteers left the "DPR" and "LPR" long ago, but some people there remain. They joined some official formations of these "republics", there remain quite distinct detachments equipped from Russia.

Probably, they would have remained there in this situation, but it would not change matter of principle, because, in the end, it matters military supply issue. Where do all these weapons come from? ammo and everything? To go there just like that, without feeling behind support, there are not many who want to, but also to break through somehow underground paths, in a plastunsky way through the forest - I think that these will be units."

Sources

• "Normandy format": the meeting took place, but progress is minimal // Voice of America. 2016. October 20.