Valentina Matvienko: More and more “volunteers” from Russia in Donbas

The Speaker of the Council of Federation of Russia Valentina Matvienko has stated that the number of troops from Russia in Donbas grows.

She has stated that at the farewell ceremony for Andrei Stenin, a photo reporter of “Russia Today” agency, NEWSru.com.

“We are seeing that more and more volunteers from Russia are joining the ranks of those people, who are courageously fighting for their rights, for justice, for peace on the land of our fraternal nation,” Matvienko said, speaking about Russian mercenaries and military in the army of separatists. As said by her, “there are losses among them as well.”

Earlier “Novaya Gazeta” found out in which way volunteers for the war in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, are recruited, and what salaries of such volunteers and their commanders are.

We remind that in recent days a news item about the Russian military men who had been killed in Ukraine fighting for Donbas’ separatists and against the Ukrainian army, was shown by the Russian state TV for the first time.

In addition, the audience of the TV channels viewed by the majority of the Russian population, are explained that Russian soldiers take holidays purposefully in order to participate in hostilities. At the same time, TV channels are praising the heroism of those who had sacrificed their lives defending separatists’ ideas, and hinting to TV viewers that people should be proud of the deeds of these guys.

Apparently, the news items of the state TV channels served as a kind of a response to independent media, which have been reporting about deaths of Russian military for several weeks. They allegedly had been sent to Ukraine secretly to fight against the army of Kyiv.

Earlier information about funerals of Russian military emerged in mass media. It was reported that young people were taking part in the military exercises in the territory of Russia. Though, judging by the postings in social networks made by those young men, they were in Donbas.