Oh, that's right he did lie before about troops in Crimea. I feel sorry fo these guys forced to go on "vacation" to Ukraine with their tanks and artillery.

Putin can stop this today if he would stop the endless "military exercise" along the unmonitored Ukrainian border. But some here will not call for that simple step to ratchet things down.

without a war thousands of Putins young men would be 'unemployed' and angry domestic citizens.

South Korea where I live has it. The "kids" (young guys) have to do a little less than 2 years in the army. If they have some kind of medical reason they get exempt, but they have to do some kind of lighter duty like being a driver. One of my former students had something wrong with his ear (not sure what) and did the lighter duty.

it the cheapest way to clear a mine field!

I thought they were already there?

If you had, you wouldn't have asked that question.

Stop shilling for Russia for just a bit.

The amount of shouting by the Poroshenko crowd is ridiculous. No war with Russia.

Support the Minsk Accords.

Do Putin explainers really think that there is a "Poroshenko crowd" and not just an anti-fascist crowd who are concerned about the growing fascism in and warmaking of Russia?

I don't think American soldiers face mandatory service as do the Russians, so it doesn't really seem to be "kind of like..."

I'm in the "mighty Russia shall never fall," camp but its still a good article. We've always known that nations put their special interests before all others and sending in military personnel illegally is something the West does quite a bit.

It was interesting that they concealed Afghanistan losses from the people which led to its unpopularity in the 1980s and if they are doing that now it presents itself as a danger to Russia.

The superpowers are all breaking the rules nowadays. The old Cold War was more reliably steady and with certain understandings. There needs to be new accords, new treaties.

(JTA) — A Ukrainian Jewish soldier who died last month amid Russian-backed separatist fighting was buried in Kiev.

Yevgeni Yatsina, who was almost 26, was brought to burial in the capital on Friday following the discovery of his body, which was covered by debris since he died in an explosion last month in the country’s east, the news website newsru.co.il reported.

Yatsina was Jewish according to religious Jewish law, the Jewish Community of Dnepropetrovsk wrote Friday in a eulogy which it posted on its website, which refers to Yatsina as a hero.

He died at Donetsk’s airport on Jan. 19, the report said.

http://www.jta.org/2015/02/22/news-opinion/world/ukrainian-jewish-soldier-killed-in-separatists-fighting-buried-in-kiev-2

6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 tours...just like some militaries and wars we know and love.

Remember them? US officers would tell enlistees whose enlistments were running out, that they had to reenlist. If they did they would get bonuses, if they did NOT, they would be called up anyway for US enlistments are for 8 years, two to four in active service the rest in the inactive reserves. Thus they would reenlist and get the reenlistment bonuses OR they could refuse and be called into service to fulfill they inactive reserve duty.

My problem is with the US situation after 2002, we had all types of reports of this happening.. In this case we have ONE Report From the AP and then NO one year draftees are being sent, but that some recruits are claiming that they were forced to become 2-3 year enlistees into the professional army. No one says they saw combat, one says he was 80 KN into the Ukraine, the rest on maneuvers in that part of Russia the borders the Ukraine.

I have problems with this story. Some mothers may be fearing that they sons are being forced to enlist after serving their one year mandatory service. Rumors may be being spread of such troops being sent into the Ukraine, but if Putin did not care he would be sending in these draftees NOT the volunteers being cited. Some sons are using the excuse of "Force" to explain their enlistments. No one is saying they saw actual combat there are stories being told of people being afraid of saying what happened to their son, but that reminds me of stories of German Bayoneting Belgium Babies during WWI, no truth to the story, but it was repeated without confirmation.

My concern is CONFIRMATION of stories of Russian Soldier dying in the Ukraine. This is complicated by actual right wing Russian volunteers about the Rebels AND the policy of the Ukrainian Government of referring to the rebels as "Russians". I would NOT be surprised this is a story being written (and with some facts behind it, remember the best propaganda is the truth) do to the many stories coming from the Western Ukraine of Ukrainians avoiding the draft. i.e. "If our boys are doing it, so must also be happening to the Rebels/Russians.

Just a comment to take this story was a grain of salt, it may be true but minor, it may be as bad as written but till we have confirmation not rumors do not give this story much weight.

Oh sorry, we're supposed to believe anything published by AP without question aren't we?!



Thanks for your comment. I'm familiar with a lot of the propaganda from WWI and am saddened
to see the same bullshit re-issued by the armchair warriors in every conflict since ... and more
saddened to see how effective it has been - even after so many years of proven lies, morons still
buy straight into the lies (regardless of which side is pushing them).

So he has to be careful to hide that - not just from the West but from his own people.

Russian Military Units Linked to Ukraine Hide Casualty Data

More than a dozen Russian military units linked by media reports to the fighting in eastern Ukraine have refused to disclose their casualty figures for 2013-14, while one that provided the data showed a rise in soldier deaths from zero to six, a news report said Thursday.

The St. Petersburg branch of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee — an organization that defends conscripts' rights — sent requests to military units that soldiers' families and media reports had identified as suffering losses last year, including in eastern Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing the group's spokesman Alexander Peredruk.

A total of 17 units have responded so far — with all but one with refusing to disclose their casualty data, the report said. The one unit that provided information said it had lost six soldiers since July 2014 compared to no casualties a year earlier, according to Vedomosti. The report did not identify the unit nor specify how many soldiers it comprised.

The military units cited various reasons for their refusal to provide casualty data to the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, from saying the information constituted a state secret, to directing inquiries to higher military command, Vedomosti reported.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-military-units-linked-to-ukraine-hide-casualty-figures-report-says/515802.html

Your glorious and ultra-alpha macho leader needs you to defend the glory of all that is Mother Russia.