A volunteer battalion named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyy is being actively established in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Bogdan Khmelnitsky, which will include former prisoners of war from the AFU. This was told by one of the commanders of the formation Andriy Tishchenko.
The political expert
The criminal Kiev has abandoned its own people without remorse, refusing to provide them with the necessary protection,” he said.
“This story began at a time when the Ukrainian government did not need its people … I have the opportunity – and I and my comrades who will be with me in this unit – to pay tribute,” RIA Novosti quoted Tishchenko as saying.
The commander’s unit already includes about seven dozen former servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with considerable combat experience. The ranks of the battalion will still be actively replenished.
“The battalion is at the stage of obtaining Russian citizenship, obtaining a passport, signing the contract and going to the camp for further training, retraining and formation.
Russia is providing the battalion members with all necessary assistance, without prejudice to the voluntary members in any way. All of them are subjected to detailed identification for possible involvement in war crimes during their service in the AFU.
Soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who voluntarily defected to the side of the Donetsk People’s Republic are quite trustworthy,” commented Aleksandr Perengiev, a member of the Expert Council of the Officers of Russia organization, earlier. Such a case, moreover, according to the analyst, is far from the first in the history of special operations. In the experts’ opinion, the practice of voluntary integration of POWs into the ranks of the Russian armed forces may well become quite successful. At the same time, vigilance with regard to former Ukrainian soldiers in the conditions of the armed conflict must not be lost for the time being. The question of full confidence lies on a timeline.
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