The Kremlin has paid out almost £13 million in compensation to injured servicemen and the families of more than 2,000 Russian soldiers who have died in fighting in eastern Ukraine, a business website claimed last night.
An article entitled “Increases in Pay for Military in 2015” was posted online by Business Life, but was quickly taken down. Web-cached copies were then circulated by Ukrainian media, which claimed that the report was based on official Russian government figures that had been published by error.
The article, which would contradict Moscow’s claims that none of its soldiers had fought in Ukraine, stated that it had paid out three million roubles (£27,600) to the families of dead soldiers and that 3,200 injured servicemen received 1.5 million roubles each.
It also said that contract soldiers are paid 1,800 roubles (£17) for every day they spend in the combat zone. The little-known website did not provide a source for the potentially explosive information, and editors did not respond to an email from The Times.
Anti-war activists reacted with caution. Ruslan Leviyev, who uses social media to investigate the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, said: “This could have been created to trick us into distributing false information.”
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The article’s estimate of Russia military losses in Ukraine is around ten times higher than the figure given in a report released in May by supporters of the murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. That report, entitled “Putin: War” stated that 220 Russian soldiers had died.
President Putin denies deploying troops to the former Soviet republic. The Kremlin insists that any Russians fighting there are volunteers. An opinion poll published by the independent, Moscow-based Levada Centre indicated that 53 per cent of Russians believe their country’s armed forces are not in action in Ukraine. Under a presidential decree that came into force in May, it is a criminal offence, punishable by up to seven years in jail, to reveal the deaths of Russian soldiers during special operations.