A Ukrainian journalist recently freed by pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east says their forces are preparing to seize more territory, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
Rebels held journalist Roman Cheremskiy for almost five months in the "Luhansk People’s Republic" in eastern Ukraine before releasing him in a prisoner swap. Cheremskiy said the separatist commanders "made no secret" that they crossed into the country from Russia and were using Kremlin-supplied weapons to train for an "offensive":
Cheremskiy describes the militants as well armed, and "clearly being trained for an offensive" to capture more Ukrainian territory. He says he saw a vast quantity of weapons stored at the rebel camps, including mines, machine guns, Grad missiles, and mortars, as well as tanks and armored vehicles.
Cheremskiy says locals, many of them miners, formed the bulk of the fighters he saw in Rovenky in Luhansk.
Cheremskiy also described the brutal labor conditions for him and other detainees at the jail, though he said he was not beaten:
"They were dispatched to work, to unload ammunition," he says. "Ammunition was brought in every day on 'Ural' trucks from Russia, from Krasnodon. They also dug trenches, cleaned the barracks, helped out in the kitchen. It's a kind of forced labor."
Cheremskiy, too, spent weeks cleaning the barracks and peeling vegetables.