laid down their weapons and crossed into Russia's Rostov region, Russian officials say.A spokesperson for the regional border department said on Sunday that the soldiers laid down their arms and entered through the Gukovo border checkpoint a day earlier.
"The motives for this act are currently being established," he said, adding that the 12 former soldiers had served in Ukraine's 72nd mechanized brigade.
This is not the first time Ukrainian soldiers has entered Russia through a border checkpoint and refused to fight against their own people. In late July, 41 servicemen left their military units and asked pro-Russia forces in Ukraine's eastern regions to help them cross into the Russian territory.
This comes as Ukraine's military crackdown on pro-Russia forces in the east of the country continues. According to reports, heavy shelling by Ukrainian government forces on the outskirts of eastern Donetsk region has left at least nine civilians dead over the past 24 hours. The Ukrainian army said it had suffered no losses in the latest fighting.
Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking regions have witnessed deadly festivities between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the pro-Russia protests. The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
says at least 1,129 people have been killed in the military campaign.
The fighting has intensified in east Ukraine since July 17, when a Malaysian airliner, carrying 298 people, was downed in the Donetsk region.