Daily Kommersant reports Russian troops in Ukraine
Nov 29, 21:59
By PAUL MIAZGA
Kyiv Post Senior Editor
The Russian daily Kommersant published a report on Nov. 29 stating that up to 800 Russian special forces, or spetsnaz, began arriving in Kyiv early on the morning of Nov. 23 and changed into Ukrainian uniforms at a Ukrainian military base just outside the capital.
The report says that at 1:32 a.m. on Nov. 23 a Russian Antonov An-26 (serial number RA-26410) arrived at a Ukrainian military base near Irpen, located 10 km from the city center. The base is adjacent to a compound operated by the BARS government security agency, which has as many as 3,000 service personnel protecting the Presidential Administration in central Kyiv.
According to the Kommersant report, at 3:17 a.m. on Nov. 23, a second plane arrived, a Ukrainian-registered heavy lift Ilyushin Il-76. The occupants of both the Antonov and the Ilyushin boarded buses waiting on the tarmac and were transported to the base at Irpen. Kommersant also reported that up to 800 such spetsnaz forces of the Vityaz regiment have arrived in Ukraine from Russia on Russian military transport aircraft, many also having landed at Kyiv's Boryspil International Airport from Nov. 24-26.
The location of the troops is currently unknown.
The deputy head of the Boryspil Airport security service, Lt. Colonel Lyashenko, refused to give clearance for the first of the planes to arrive from Russia on Nov. 23 and immediately tendered his resignation. The press service of the airport security service would not give the reasons for Lyashenko's resignation, but did confirm that Lyashenko had resigned his post.
The staff at another regional airport nearby also refused to give landing permission to further planes arriving on Nov. 24, but they were overruled and the planes landed, said an anonymous source within the State Security Service (SBU) on Nov. 25.
The source stated that each plane, after landing, was then loaded with sensitive documents from the Presidential Administration, the SBU and other departments before taking off again, bound for Moscow.
Officials at Boryspil airport and with the Interior Ministry have so far declined to comment on the matter. Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, on Nov. 26 called the reports of Russian forces in Ukraine as "completely absurd and an open provocation." |
