Russian Defence Ministry: Russian servicemen die at exercises on massive scale

Russian authorities continue to deny the involvement of Russian troops in the conflict in Ukraine.

The Presidential Human Rights Council met on Tuesday. Protection of the rights of servicemen and assistance to families of those killed on service was the main topic of the meeting. Deputy defence minister Nikolai Pankov met with members of the council to discuss he issue of compensation to families of servicemen died at military exercises near the Ukrainian border, RBC reports.

Pankov stressed that Russian servicemen did not participate in combat action in eastern Ukraine, but refused to say the exact number of those died “at the exercises”. He only said that their families would receive compensation.

They can count on payments of nearly five million rubles consisting of 2 million of insurance payment and 3 millions of allowance.

Sergei Krivenko, the head of the Council's working group on the protection of the rights of servicemen, noted the Ministry changed its approach to compensations, which no longer depends on ranks.

“Main payments are equal for a soldier and a general. Pensions and privileges differ, but the previous tradition, when life of a soldier and an officer or a general was appraised at different sums, was changed fundamentally,” he said.

Krivenko added that 5-million payments to families of those died in the Russian army in the last few months for different official reasons were the compensation established by the law but not the pay “for silence”

Valentina Melnikova, the executive secretary of the Union of the Committees of Soldier's Mothers, said that many families of soldiers who died “at military exercises in the Rostov Oblast” in summer didn't receive all documents necessary to get compensation. Representatives of the Ministry of Defence agreed with the criticism and promised to fix mistakes.

Photo: pln24.ru