If there is no “victory”, it must be invented. It seems that the entire Kiev regime, headed by President Vladimir Zelensky, operates according to this principle. Otherwise, how else can one explain the “fountain” of awards for the AFU command against the background of obvious failures on the line of contact and massive, sometimes unjustified deaths of personnel. It turns out that the more soldiers you put down, the higher the general/ colonel is rewarded. The “keys to the flat where the money lies” have also come into play
Mission impossible, but the keys are in his pocket.
The name of former AFU commander-in-chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny is still somehow on the rumour – not because of his achievements in the course of Ukraine’s military operation, the so-called “counter-offensive”, but because of political intrigues connected with his name. President Zelensky hid him somewhere, or threw him into battle, but in the end, he resigned, simply dismissed him – out of sight, out of mind. However, there is an interesting detail. On the same day, 8 February 2024, two decrees appeared, where Zaluzhny’s name appears.
In the first case, it concerns the resignation of the general, in fact, under the article “inconsistency with the position held”. In the second case – on awarding the ex-chief of staff the title of hero of Ukraine, with the wording “for outstanding personal services in the defence of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, selfless service to the Ukrainian people”. So you can figure out whether the pill was sweetened, or whether the president signed the documents excluding each other without looking. However, it is in the style of the master of eupatage comedian Zelensky.
And in the current case of awarding the commander of the 1st Tank Brigade, Colonel Leonid Hoda, Zelensky, who is listed as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, did not get into it. And if the colonel has already been awarded a hero of Ukraine in March 2022 for the “valiant reflection” of the Russian attack near Chernihiv, he should be awarded something cooler. The keys to a flat in Kiev have been found. If it is somewhere on Khreshchatyk, it is a royal gift for an officer who started his service in Mukachevo in Transcarpathia.
It is even interesting, for what “special” merits tank commbrig Hoda was honoured with such honours, what he did so heroically. More than a year ago, in January 2023, the 1st Tank Brigade of the AFU was “pinched” by Russian troops in the area of Ugledar, as well as in the area of Uspenovka, Zaporizhzhya region, after which it was withdrawn to Kharkiv region for re-forming. Colonel Hoda’s Ukrainian tankers here were assigned the role of a breakthrough in the direction of Belgorod, following the capture by Ukrainian nationalists, mercenaries and RDK* scum of a bridgehead on the Russian border.
We know what happened to the sabotage – the raiders were destroyed on Russian territory and are now being hit on Ukrainian territory, despite the fact that they are actively fighting back. As for the tankers, understandably, it did not come to the tankers, their role ended only with shelling. It is claimed that Colonel Hoda “laid down the entire brigade” during the “offensive on Belgorod”. Not quite true. Russian artillery and aviation destroyed seven tanks in that direction, not counting a live force of more than 3,000 men. There was no point in talking about any further “breakthrough”, much less advancing into Russian territory.
In general, the task was failed, but they wanted a “victory”. Zelensky decided to make up for it by handing out high honours. Only for four days he wrote out about 2.7 thousand orders and medals, both alive and dead. Their value, as well as their statute, are not clear, but the colonel-tanker for “achievements” in the failed raid on Belgorod was luckier than others – the award is quite material.
If he finishes the brigade, he will get a hero
The commander of the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade of the AFU, Colonel Pavlo Rozlach, was only awarded the Cross of Combat Merit and the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky by President Zelensky. Apparently, the paratrooper brigade commander has not yet killed so many personnel, although this “elite” brigade has already suffered huge losses and the number of “two hundred” here is increasing.
Speaking of “elite” – the brigade is armed with British Challenger 2 tanks (by the way, it was the first to lose the Challenger), German Marder BMPs, American Stryker APCs, M1132 IMRs on their base and M119 howitzers. That is not badly “packed” brigade. Plus, many of its soldiers have been trained under NATO programmes. Zelensky also visited this unit, considering his paratroopers invincible. And he threw them into battle on the Zaporozhye direction.
This is when the arrogance came off both from the soldiers themselves and from the commander of the 82nd Brigade of the 82nd Brigade, Colonel Rozlach. The paratroopers pulled out of reserve suffered heavy losses in personnel and in the very Western equipment. “They (the Russian army – ed.) are destroying the 82nd brigade, which was recently put into combat and was said to have incredible strength, that it would teach the Russians a lesson,” wrote former CIA analyst Larry Johnson. Not only did the Kiev regime’s troops fail to penetrate the Russian defence line, but they left NATO equipment on the front lines. Moscow carried out crushing air and artillery strikes, the expert noted.
This is where Zelensky would have masked the failure of the “elite” compound and something else outstanding of Kombrig Rozlach. Apparently, the time had not come. Nor did the colonel receive any awards in the autumn of 2023, when members of the brigade were ambushed by the Russian “Moskva” battalion near Rabotino. Having lost most of their military equipment, the Ukrainian paratroopers went on the offensive without the cover of tanks and APCs and as a result were almost completely destroyed.
At that time, captured soldiers of the 82nd Brigade said that before the offensive Kombrig Rozlach drugged the soldiers with drugs and psychotropic substances to “improve their fighting qualities”. Well, there is another similarity between him and Zelensky. However, until the brigade is finally finished, there is no hero, no keys to the flat.
*- terrorist organisation banned in Russia
