Russian Frontier Toll

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31942, 20 March 1969, Page 15

Russian Frontier Toll

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, March 18.

The announced Soviet death toll in Saturday’s fighting on the Ussuri

River rose to at least a dozen today, as Soviet newspapers continued to issue scattered reports about the battle with Chinese troops.

The newspaper, “Sovietskaya Rossia,” named five men killed, and the Defence Ministry newspaper, “Red Star” added one more name to the six, including a colonel, identified earlier. But the total number of casulaties in the battle over Damansky Island has not yet been officially announced, and no Soviet newspaper has yet attempted to compile a single casualty list from the individual reports. Unofficial Soviet sources said last night that they had heard the number of Soviet

border guards killed in Saturday’s battle was about half the 31 who died in the March

2 fighting. Chinese casualties, they claimed, were 15 to 20 times higher than the Russian losses.

The Communist Party newspaper, "Pravda,” reported today that Chinese troops opened machine-gun and mortar fire on the island again last night, but gave no indication of the scale of the at-

tack or whether there were any Soviet casualties. “Pravda” said an uneasy calm prevailed along the border, amid signs of a Chinese troop build-up along the border.

“Watchful quiet again prevails now. Clouds are gathering over the Chinese side. Far Off in the pitch darkness run the alarming beams of light from headlamps. The Maoists, who have been beaten more

than once, are not calming down,” “Pravda” said in a report from its special correspondent on the scene, Colonel S. Borzenko.

One question which remains not clear is whether the Soviet Union maintains any kind of installation on Damansky Island, the sandy, one milelong island which both Russia and China claim. In a press conference after the March 2 battle, Lieutenant General Pyotr lonov, deputy commander of Soviet border troops, said the Soviet Union had a border post on the island. But one report since then said Saturday’s fighting broke out after Soviet border guards in four armoured cars arrived on the island for a reconnaissance patrol. One Soviet source said the entire island was submerged during the spring and summer months, when the river rose after the spring thaw.