Accidentally crossed the line: Captured Russian troops in Ukraine were 'there by accident’

Russian military sources said that the group of Russian soldiers captured in eastern Ukraine had crossed the border ‘by mistake’.

17:44 26 August 2014

Ahead of a key meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents, a group of Russian soldiers were captured after which Ukraine has released video interviews of some of them.

A Russian defence ministry source was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying: "The soldiers really did participate in a patrol of a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border, crossed it by accident on an unmarked section, and as far as we understand showed no resistance to the armed forces of Ukraine when they were detained."

The source also said that some 500 Ukrainian servicemen had crossed the border at various times, adding: "We did not give much publicity to that. We just returned all those willing to return to Ukrainian territory at safe places."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said: "This wasn't a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out."

Ivan Milchakov, one of the men who were interviewed said in the video: "I did not see where we crossed the border. They just told us we were going on a 70km march over three days," he said.

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