Military graveyard suggests Russia's Ukraine involvement

PSKOV , Russia, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A Russian politician claims he was beaten for informing journalists he witnessed the burial of a Russian soldier allegedly killed fighting in Ukraine.

Writing to the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail from his hospital bed, Lev Shlosberg, a member of the regional assembly in the northwestern city of Pskov, said, "They were well-trained professionals who knew how to beat people." Shlosberg observed the burial of a member of the Russian Army's elite 76th Guards Air Assault Division, stationed in Pskov, and was beaten two weeks ago, he said, after investigating why members of the division were dying.

"(The attack) is the revenge of those who are involved in sending troops from Pskov to Ukraine ... We broke their secrecy by publicizing the soldier's funeral, because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has decided to lie to the whole world ... any recognition of the lie would be a real blow to Putin. Therefore, the entire state system, including the military, continues to lie," Shlosberg wrote.

Russia has claimed no soldiers have been sent to Ukraine, but returning dead bodies, among other factors, has forced the Kremlin to now claim Russians fighting in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions are "volunteers."

An organization started in the 1980s to investigate the location of Russians fighting in Afghanistan, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, confirmed at least two missing soldiers are in eastern Ukraine.

"It looks like a war, people are being shot just like in a war, people are dying just like in a war," said Svetlana Melinkova, a founder of the group. "This invasion of Ukraine is a secret operation. There's nothing on TV, journalists say nothing about it. Nobody can say that we (Russians) are there. Relatives believe their sons and husbands are in the Rostov region (in Russia, near the Ukrainian border) and everything is fine. They believe what they see on TV."