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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Two Ukrainian servicemen side with LPR, ready to defend self-proclaimed republic

One of them says he will continue studying at the university but, if necessary, he will pick up arms and defend his native land

Ukrainian soldier AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Ukrainian soldier

© AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

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About 8,000 Ukrainian policemen, military defected to Donbas militia units — prosecutor

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Two Ukrainian servicemen Sergey Sergeyev and Artyom Molchanov have sided with the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and are ready to defend LPR if necessary.

"Now I returned to my native town of Alchevsk. I will continue studying at the university but, if necessary, I will pick up arms and defend my native land," Luhansk Inform Center quoted Molchanov as saying.

Sergeyev added that he plans to join LPR people’s militia. "I am going to join people’s militia and defend my town. I will stay here and bring up my child here," he said.

Sergyev and Molchanov are not the first Ukrainian servicemen who decided to stay in LPR. Among others who sided with the self-proclaimed republic are former head of Ukrainian Luhansk customs Oleg Chernousov, Alexey Miroshnichenko who served in Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and his brother Yury Miroshnichenko who worked in the Ukrainian embassy in Paris. They returned in Luhansk because of disagreement with Kiev’s official policy.

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