Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov says that it is wrong to interpret Vladimir Putin's words about some people who are solving military issues" in Donbas as a confirmation of the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, - reports Interfax-Ukraine.
Those who understood the words of the President of the Russian Federation at the final press conference as a confirmation of the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine "interpret them wrong" according to D. Peskov.
"It is absolutely wrong", - said the spokesman.
On the eve of the annual press conference on December 17th Putin said there were no Russian regular troops in the east of Ukraine. "We have never said that there were no people who were engaged in solving certain military issues but this does not mean that there are regular Russian troops. You should feel the difference", - said Putin.
D.Peskov stressed that it was about volunteers, not the Russian military specialists. "There was a war. People went there to fight. Shot, participated in the fighting. This is the military sphere, " - said the President's Press Secretary.
"Obviously, if you read Putin's words impartially, you will recall that he repeatedly talked about our fellow citizens, citizens of Russia, about the citizens of other CIS countries, who go on their own. Someone does not have a specific employment, another is using vacation or takes unpaid leave. These people really exist, they go there, "- said D. Peskov, referring to the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine.
"These are the people who expressed their solidarity with Donbass at some time, who considered it unacceptable to put up (that) the armed forces of Ukraine began to destroy the settlements in the south-east of Ukraine", - said D. Peskov.
As previously reported, at the big annual press conference, Putin was asked by the Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk about the possibility of an exchange of prisoners of Ukraine Oleg Sentsov and Nadezhda Savchenko for the Russian special forces, military personnel of the Armed Forces of the RF Yevgeniy Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov.
"In the context of your repeated assertions that there are no Russian military personnel in Donbass, I want to say you hi from the captain Yerofeyev and the sergeant Alexandrov, two commandos from Togliatti", - said the Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsimbalyuk. Thus, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that there were some people in Donbass who are solving military issues in the context of references to the presence of proven facts of military personnel of the Russian Federation among militants.