"In government-controlled Troitske (69km west of Luhansk), the SMM saw two Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers with insignias of 'Georgian Legion' on their uniforms. The SMM also noted that they spoke Georgian. Three residents separately told the SMM that soldiers of Georgian origin were accommodated in houses in the village," the press release read.
In April 2014, Kiev authorities launched a military operation against pro-independence militia in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region. In February 2015, the two sides reached a ceasefire deal after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Format — in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. Both sides of the conflict, however, are constantly accusing each other of violations of the agreement.
