Soldiers of the DPR army told how the SBU tried to recruit them using pressure on their families
DPR military personnel spoke about recruitment attempts made against them by the Security Service of Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports from Donetsk.
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“The servicemen of our Army and the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic will tell us exactly how SBU officers operate. Today, senior lieutenant Igor Mikhailovich Grigoriev and sergeant Oleg Valentinovich Boyko will be present with us. I’ll tell you briefly, and then in the future you can, the guys themselves will comment, ask them questions. This is the meaning. Their relatives are not on the territory of the Republic, but let’s call it there, on the mainland of Ukraine. And the pressure increased, both on relatives and on our military personnel. Intimidation occurs over the telephone, offers of cooperation with Ukrainian security agencies are received in order to save the lives of relatives,” said DPR Ministry of Defense representative Eduard Basurin.
Military personnel of the DPR army supplemented Basurin with the facts they have.
“Literally a month and a half ago, I received the first call from my daughter, with whom I practically do not communicate, because I promised her back in 2014 that I would not call her, so as not to endanger her life. She called me in tears, she said. “Dad is being pursued by the SBU, they want to contact you. For what purpose, for what, I don’t know.” Of course, I refused, I said that no matter what, I would not contact anyone, and even then I suggested that she publicly refuse me. Literally three or four days later, another call came, the daughter, again, tearfully addressed: “Dad, contact them, I will give you a phone number, be sure to contact them, because they are persecuting me, they are calling me from some departments there, they are interrogating me and asking.” Well, what can my daughter say about me? I don’t communicate with her, she only knows about me that dad is in normal health, dad is alive, dad is healthy. She can't say anything more. And quite recently such an incident occurred.
SBU officers chased her on her way to kindergarten to pick up her grandson, insistently demanded that she dial me, and took the phone away so they could talk to me. The SBU officer introduced himself as Igor. He offered me to buy a new phone and SIM card, gave me a phone number and therefore the number I had to contact him. I understand perfectly well that this is so that I can work for them and give them some information. I, of course, made it clear to him that I needed to think. I need to make some decision. Well, in the future I don’t want to communicate with these people. I have nothing to talk to them about, I’m just worried about the life of my daughter, for the life of my grandson. The daughter is 27 years old, the grandson is seven,” said Lieutenant Grigoriev.
“I, Oleg Valentinovich Boyko, born in 1983, am a DPR serviceman. My family is in the city of Kramatorsk, and since 2015 my family has been under psychological influence. They are trying to put pressure on the family, threatening me, threatening me with imprisonment because I am the defender of the Donetsk region, the Donetsk People's Republic. They are trying to put pressure, the last time there was a call from SBU officers. When they come home, they put pressure on them. For mom, wife. Mother born in 1961, wife born in 1989. They put endless pressure on me so that they can influence me so that I start cooperating with the SBU.
My family occupies a neutral position both in relation to Ukraine and in relation to the Donetsk People's Republic. When they realized that they were not going to influence me through my family, my mother, my wife. They contacted me over the phone and offered me money, benefits after all these conversations... Over the phone they tried to find out where our units were based, the phone numbers of the commanders, they began to threaten that they might open criminal cases, that my wife and mother might go missing, and they didn’t care. they will not be able to influence this. I had no choice but to contact our internal security. I ask for the influence of public organizations, human rights organizations, to take the protection of my loved ones, my family, my wife and mother, besides them I have no one else,” commented serviceman Oleg Boyko on the recruitment attempt.
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