A Russian court has revealed information about the supply of food to Russian army soldiers stationed in the eastern part of Ukraine outside the uncontrolled territory of the Kiev government, Radio Freedom reported on Thursday.
According to a ruling by the Rostov court, 1,300 tons of food were sent every two weeks to Russian soldiers stationed in Moscow-maintained militant gangs from the Rostov region in southern Russia.
Despite the well-known evidence of the presence of Russian soldiers in Donbass, Moscow’s official position so far has been that there are no soldiers there.
The Rostov Kirov District Court ruled in November in a criminal case on corruption, the text of which was published on the court’s website.
The deputy regional head of a local army food company was found guilty of bribery mediation.
He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for handing over 990,000 rubles (11,916 euros) from his boss to the head of the State Sanitary Epidemiological Surveillance Center in the Southern War District.
According to the court ruling, the accused’s job was to provide food supplies to Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine.
As the defense officer explained, the lieutenant colonel in the Southern War District had demanded 90,000 rubles a month from his superior in order not to obstruct the work with supplies.
Otherwise, the officer, according to the verdict, “promised that supplies to the Russian troops on duty in the DTR and LTR would be suspended.” The abbreviations used in Russia in the judgment refer to the self-proclaimed “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk by Moscow-backed militant gangs.
It follows from the text of the judgment that the deliveries took place at least in 2018 and 2019.
In the autumn of 2018, food worth 30,000,000 rubles was spoiled because the column was delayed by sanitary control.
Radio Freedom estimates that delivering 1,300 tonnes of food every two weeks could support around 26,000 men.
However, it cannot be inferred from the judgment that there was only one supply.
In February 2014, Russia occupied the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. Since April 2014, Moscow-backed and armed militants, saboteurs and soldiers of Russia’s regular units have occupied large areas in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine.
In the conflict in eastern Ukraine, 13,000 people have been killed and almost three million have fled.
Punishing Russia for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of eastern Ukraine, the EU, the US and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on many of Russia’s top officials, the Kremlin’s immediate circle, and Russia’s financial, defense, energy and other sectors.
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