The Russian Federation sends monthly over 140 trucks with food worth $ 3.5 mln to its troops in occupied Donbas. It is enough to feed dozens of thousands of military personnel daily.
It is reported by the investigation “They are there. The Russian court helped count occupants in Donbas” in the program “Issues of the National Security” by the Center for Journalist Investigations.
The sentence of the Kirovskii raion court of Rostov-na-Donu in the case # 1-82/2021 from November 10, 2021 contains the testimony of the defendant – the manager of military food supply at LLC “Tekhnologia” “AUP # 38 Rostov-na-Donu”. He said he directly managed the supply of flour, fresh vegetables and canned food to military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation located on the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
The supply volume revealed by the court sentence is impressive: 70 trucks with carrying capacity 40 tons each and total weight 1.3 thousand tons per two weeks. The court sentence confirmed the presence of Russian troops on occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. It also allows estimating their approximate quantity.
The number of Russian troops in Donbas exceeds 26 thousand people if the weight of the military field ration of the Russian Armed Forces is taken as the basis for calculations (3.46 kg). However, only part of the food for field ration was supplied to Donbas by trucks as it is stated in the court sentence. The real number of Russian troops can be significantly higher and reach the number of so-called “Armed Forces of DNR and LNR” (in fact, it is the 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation). In accordance with occupation administrations, it equals 20 thousand and 14 thousand, respectively. Thus, their total number is around 35 thousand people.
Therefore, it confirms that the Russian Federation exercises effective control over occupied territories of Ukrainian Donbas, as the journalist investigation concludes.
Besides that, the cost of feeding the Russian military in Donbas is around 3.5 million USD per month, in accordance with calculations of the Center for Journalist Investigations.
It is also reported that Russian career soldiers as well as mercenaries from Ukrainian citizens serve at the 1st and 2nd Army Corps. The latter receive payment from the aggressor-state and, thus, commit a war crime.
More details can be found in the investigation “They are there. A Russian court helped count occupants in Donbas” broadcast by the program “Issues of the National Security”.
