MOSCOW (AP) – Russian opposition activists published a report Tuesday that they claim proves that Russia is deeply involved in the war in Ukraine, seeking to counter overwhelming state media reports casting the events as a local uprising against the Ukrainian government.
Prominent Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov was working on the report, entitled “Putin.War,” after Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the time of his murder in February.
Drawing on media accounts, testimonies from relatives and other representatives of dead soldiers and confidential sources, the 64-page report maintains that hundreds of Russian troops have died fighting in a war that has cost Russia hundreds of millions of dollars.
Opposition activist Ilya Yashin, who presented “Putin.War” in Moscow, said that by conservative estimates at least 220 Russian soldiers had died in two battles in eastern Ukraine within the past year.
Yashin said the real number of losses may have been much greater but that he would give figures only for deaths that could be confirmed.