Ukraine parliament dissolved, military claim capturing Russian paratroopers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday, Aug 25, dissolved parliament, setting up fresh elections. In a statement posted on his website announcing the dissolution, Poroshenko said he had called snap elections on Oct 26.

The dissolution of parliament was among the campaign promises made by Poroshenko before he came to power in presidential elections in May.

The last parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place in October 2012, with the legislature being voted in for a five-year term.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian security services on Monday released video footage purporting to show Russian servicemen who were captured by Ukrainian government forces while fighting alongside pro-Moscow fighters in Ukraine, according to Reuters.

The footage, which is likely to fuel allegations from Kiev and its Western allies of Russian involvement in the war, appeared on the day the Russian and Ukrainian leaders are to meet for talks in the Belarusian capital to try to end the conflict.

Ukraine's state security service said on Monday it had detained 10 Russian paratroopers who had crossed into Ukrainian territory from Russia in a column of several dozen armed infantry vehicles.

In footage posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian government's "anti-terrorist operation," the men were shown dressed in camouflage fatigues.

One of them, who identified himself as Ivan Milchakov, listed his personal details, including the name of the paratroop regiment he said is based in the Russian town of Kostroma.

"I did not see where we crossed the border. They just told us we were going on a 70-kilometer march over three days," he said.

"Everything is different here, not like they show it on television. We've come as cannon fodder," he said in the video.

The Russian servicemen were detained with their personal documents and weapons, near the small town of Amvrosiyivka in Donetsk region, the Ukrainian state security service said.

"Officially they are on military exercises in various corners of Russia. In reality they are involved in military aggression against Ukraine," Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said in a Facebook post.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday dismissed reports of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, saying it was "disinformation" by the authorities in Kiev.