Ella Mikhaylovna Polyakova (; born 7 February 1941) is a Russian human rights activist, a member of President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

's advisory council on human rights. She is also a leader of non-governmental organization Soldiers' Mothers of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Opinions on the Russian participation in the war in Donbas

In a situation where the Kremlin consistently denied its involvement in the

Russo-Ukrainian war The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, Polyakova openly talked about dead and wounded Russian soldiers and also called the Russian intrusion an "invasion". ''"When masses of people, under commanders' orders, on tanks, APCs and with the use of heavy weapons, (are) on the territory of another country, cross the border, I consider this an invasion,"'' Ella Polyakova said on 29 August 2014. She has also said more than 100 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine in a single battle in August 2014 while helping pro-Russian separatists fight Ukrainian troops. According to her, around 300 people were also wounded in the same incident near the town of Snizhnye, when a column of trucks they were driving, full of ammunition, was hit by a sustained volley of

Grad rockets The BM-21 "Grad" () is a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first combat use in March 1969 during the Sino-So ...

Awards

* Galina Starovoitova Peace Prize (1999) * (2004) * (2010)

References

External links

Russian NGO branded as 'foreign agent' after reporting on Russian military action in Ukraine
Amnesty.org, 29. 8. 2014
Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg
web site. Russian human rights activists Living people 1941 births Women human rights activists {{Russia-activist-stub