Russian authorities in no hurry to meet with captured servicemen
The Security Service of Ukraine, SBU, is prepared to provide access to the 2 GRU officers captured by Ukraine army May 16 in Donbas to Russian officials. However, no requests had been submitted by the end of the day of May 22, SBU chief’s adviser Markian Lubkivsky said, speaking late on a political talk show on 112 Kanal.
“The service in cooperation with the foreign ministry is ready to let Russian officials visit their servicemen currently held in a Kyiv hospital,” the official said.
Experts present at the talk show stressed Putin’s continuing refusal to acknowledge the presence of the Russian troops in Donbas, The no-show in the hospital of any Russian consular officials since the capture was made public on May 16 is part of Moscow’s policy of silencing the issue.
Meanwhile, some military experts pointed out that the stories of both special forces service given by them to Ukraine officials and journalists do not ring as peaceful as the officers tried to make them sound.
The shotgun, a sniper gun with a silencer, is issued only to special forces servicemen. It belonged to one of the servicemen, and a Ukrainian soldier was killed from it.
Second, the mission of the Russians was not just to observe the situation in the touchline zone. They, and the other 10 Russians in the group, were on a combat mission to attack the Ukrainian army outpost and capture a bridge in Shchastya.