Russian officials mistakenly posted the number of servicemen killed in Ukraine since 2014 when the country entered and annexed the Crimea region. The fighting continues to this day as Russian troops keep hammering Ukrainian cities in the east.
Only four Ukrainian troops were killed by Russians in the last day.
https://t.co/CfkBTJMPr7 A mere 4 #Ukrainian troops killed in the last 36 hrs. *Normandy Four* may sleep well.#Ukraine pic.twitter.com/q0Dhm2PR8N
— Ukrainian Updates (@Ukroblogger) August 25, 2015
Over 2,000 Russian families have been paid a lump sum of three million rubles (about $50,000) for their lost family member.
Forbes reported:
Russian president Vladimir Putin has decreed that all Russian casualties “in peacetime” be a state secret. In addition to criminal charges arising from divulging state secrets, families risk losing pensions and lump-sum payments if they reveal that their sons were killed in Ukraine. Mothers of soldiers’ associations have been branded “foreign agents” for collecting data on Russian casualties. Dissident Boris Nemtsov was murdered shortly before completing his study of Russian casualties in Ukraine. Russian civil rights organizations, working against the fog of official resistance, could confirm only several hundred battlefield deaths.
Business Life (Delovaya Zhizn) reports on markets, finance, entrepreneurship, finance, and leisure, scarcely an outlet for sensational information. Its innocuously entitled “Increases in Pay for Military in 2015,” however, reveals what appear to be official figures on the number of Russian soldiers killed or made invalids “in eastern Ukraine.” Russian censors quickly removed the offending material but not before it had been webcached by the Ukrainian journal Novy Region (New Region). Here is the “top secret” material the censors removed (my translation):
“Compensation of military personnel taking part in military actions in Ukraine in 2014-2015.” In addition, the Russian government, in a decision about the monetary compensation of military personnel taking part in military action in eastern Ukraine, approved compensation for families of military personnel who were killed taking part in military action in Ukraine of three million rubles (about $50,000). For those who have become invalids during military action, the compensation is one and a half million rubles (about $25,000). A payment of 1,800 rubles is envisioned for contract “fighters” for every day of their presence in the conflict zone. In all, as of February 1, 2015, monetary compensation had been paid to more than 2,000 families of fallen soldiers and to 3,200 military personnel suffering heavy wounds and recognized as invalids (my italics).”
Forbes: Russia inadvertently posts its casualties in Ukraine: 2,000 deaths, 3,200 disabled
http://t.co/I5tsGP7Zla
— UKRAINE TODAY (@uatodaytv) August 26, 2015
