Russians Are Starting To Demand Answers On Why Are Russian Soldiers Fighting In Ukraine

Russian soldiers are pictured next to a tank in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov region, near the border with Ukraine, August 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Alexander Demianchuk

Russia Lies About Invading Ukraine as It Invades Ukraine -- Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast

As Russia troops and tanks make an apparent bid to open the land route to annexed Crimea, discontent is growing in the motherland about the obvious but oft-denied war in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Russia – Where U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have failed to make Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledge his ever-more-overt invasion of Ukraine and think about pulling back, Valentina Melnikova, the head of Russia’s famous Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, might just have a chance.

Early Thursday morning, Melnikova started getting phone calls from Russian army bosses. All of them, from the deputy defense minister to the paratrooper division commanders, wanted to meet with the great matriarch of the Russian military. She had accused the entire high command, along with Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin of invading Ukraine and of committing a crime against Russian citizens by sending Russian soldiers to "the bloody battlefields" without declaring the war, without signing legal papers with the servicemen, without letting Russian mothers know where exactly their drafted sons ended up dying.

Read more ....

Update #1: Exclusive: Over 100 Russian soldiers killed in single Ukraine battle - Russian rights activists -- Reuters
Update #2: Russian reporters 'attacked at secret soldier burials' -- BBC

My Comment: Putin does enjoy overwhelming support in Russia .... but there is little if any support among the Russian population for Russian soldiers to be involved in Ukraine's civil war. And while the main Russian news services are playing down the role that the Russian military is playing in Ukraine .... Russian social media is alive and well in documenting and exposing what is happening. So far ... the discontent is low-key .... but if another round of sanctions do occur, and the Russian economy continues to shrink resulting in higher unemployment, coupled with the bodies of Russian servicemen continuing to be buried .... all bets will then be off.