The U.S. ambassador to NATO said that Russian soldiers were present in Eastern Ukraine since beginning of conflict nine month ago. Russian operatives and soldiers were in a command role and operated advanced military equipment.
“Back in August, we saw a spike in direct Russian intervention in the form of Russian military units. We saw Russian battalions as coherent formations deployed into Ukraine,” Douglas E. Lute told.
“We don’t see another such direct intervention (by Russian units) as imminent. There are Russian soldiers in southeastern Ukraine today operating the more sophisticated Russian hardware that has been provided to the separatist movement,” he added.
