People Involved in Organ Trafficking Arrive in Donetsk Region - LPR Official

LUHANSK, December 11 (Sputnik) - People involved in black market organ trade have arrived in the Bakhmut (Artemivsk) area in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops are now suffering heavy losses, Vitaly Kiselev, an official of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Interior Ministry told Sputnik.

"Literally three weeks ago, the notorious Elizabeth Debru arrived in the Artyomovsk region ... She arrived with representatives of the so-called Mozart Group… these people came to light back in 2014-2015, when there was fierce fighting on the territory of Donbass, they came to light as black market transplant specialists," Kiselev said.

He pointed out that Ukrainian troops are suffering major losses in the Bakhmut area, which is something that those involved in organ trafficking could take advantage of.

"Of course, they [transplantologists] could not stand aside and not make money on this, on the organs of the Ukrainian soldiers who now die in almost entire platoons, or even battalions," Kiselev told Sputnik.

In April, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said that the black market for the purchase of human organs from Ukraine, to be used for transplantation operations for European patients, had revived.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s losses in November alone amounted to over 8,300 soldiers. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said earlier in December that Kiev lost only 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers since the offset of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on February 24.