LUGANSK, December 29. /TASS/. Kiev’s claims that a militia fighter of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) defected to the Ukrainian army are a lie, LRP Representative in the Working Subgroup for Humanitarian Issues in the Contact Group and Head of the POW Exchange Working Group Olga Kobtseva said on Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian side is lying, disseminating information that a serviceman of the LPR people’s militia allegedly voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army’s ranks," the LuganskInformCenter quoted the representative as saying.
"Attempting to cover up its crime, the Ukrainian side is disseminating untrue information in the media space, alleging that the [LPR] serviceman crossed the engagement line ‘on his own,’ while heavily intoxicated. Of course, this information has nothing to do with reality," she stressed.
The press office of the command of Ukraine’s Joint Force Operation in the Donbass region reported overnight to Tuesday that the Ukrainian armed forces had detained an LPR militia fighter. As the press office claimed, the militiaman "crossed the engagement line towards the Ukrainian positions in the Lugansk region while heavily intoxicated with alcohol, after which he was apprehended and transferred to the Ukrainian Security Service."
Meanwhile, LPR people’s militia spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said earlier on Wednesday that a subversive group of the Ukrainian military had abducted a fighter of the people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic.
"On December 27, a Ukrainian special operations subversive group abducted a serviceman of the LPR people’s militia. Traces of a struggle and blood stains were found on the spot where our fighter was located, which is evidence that violence was committed against him," the LPR people’s militia said in a statement posted on its Telegram Channel.
The abducted fighter is being subjected to physical and moral pressure and is being fed banned medicines to force him to give false evidence, the statement says.
The Ukrainian army committed a new hostile act while Ukraine’s delegation in the Contact Group on settling the situation in Donbass "is initiating a new truce, trying to mislead the international community with its fake aspirations for peace," the LPR people’s militia said.
The Ukrainian subversive forces’ actions are a repeat of two previous abductions: the abduction of LPR representative in the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination Andrey Kosyak in October and a people’s militia fighter in November, it specified.
All these flagrant violations are "the result of the OSCE’s inactivity" and the absence of a proper reaction from the organization’s Special Monitoring Mission, Filiponenko stressed.
"We call on international observers of the OSCE Mission to document another flagrant violation of the ceasefire that entailed the abduction of a people’s militia fighter and to contribute to his release," the statement says.