At a time when diplomats around the world are watching for signs of a “Russian aggression” against Ukraine, a blunder committed by a simple court serves as a reminder to what extent the permanent presence of the Russian army in this country is a open secret.
At the origin of the case, there is a fairly classic corruption case involving a certain VN Zabaluev, deputy director of the company Tekhnologiya, located in Rostov-on-Don and responsible for the food supply of the Russian army in the south of the country.
According to the verdict rendered at the end of November by a local court, the man admitted to having bribed on several occasions, in 2018 and 2019, officers of the army’s hygiene service to evade checks on the quality of the food delivered.
A troop of 26,000 men?
The verdict is severe, five years in prison, and above all very detailed. The site of Radio Svoboda carefully studied the 100,000 characters lined up by the judges of the court of the Kirov region. However, the fact that these deliveries supplied the Russian troops stationed in Ukraine is explicitly mentioned on several occasions.
“This food was intended for military units of the armed forces of the Russian Federation deployed in the territories of the DNR and the LNR”, the court writes in black and white, with reference to the Donetsk People’s Republic and that of Luhansk, the two separatist territories of Donbass. For its part, Moscow has always denied any involvement in the conflict and at most admits the presence alongside local troops of “Volunteers” Russian.
“Every two weeks, a column of 40-ton trucks carrying a total of 1,300 tons was sent”, can we still read. On this basis, and by studying the details of the deliveries, Radio Svoboda estimates that these correspond to a troop of 26,000 men, a figure obviously subject to caution.
A “mistake” of the court
Immediately after the publication of articles in independent media on Thursday, December 16, the verdict was removed from the court site (but kept by several observers, including The world). Unusually, the Kremlin had to explain itself. According to his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, there was ” error “ court, “Because it is impossible, given that there are no Russian soldiers in the territories of the self-proclaimed republics”.
the number of soldiers whether Moscow permanently maintains Ukrainian soil is unknown – Kiev or NATO regularly giving unverifiable estimates. The most obvious signs of this presence – capture of soldiers, testimonies of the wounded, repatriation of the dead, observation of modern equipment, publications of soldiers on social networks… – were observed mainly during the hottest phases of the conflict in the Donbass , in July-August 2014 and in January-February 2015, when regular units of the Russian army were engaged in the front line against the Kiev forces.