Novoazovsk, DPR. Captured wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city’s Central District Hospital. Photo: Sergey Bobylev / TASS
A battalion of Ukrainian soldiers captured in the special operations zone is being created. It will be named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the famous hetman who freed the Little Russians from the yoke of the Commonwealth.
WHY UKRAINIAN PRISONERS CROSSED TO THE RUSSIAN SIDE
“We will defend our land,” says Andrey Tishchenko, a former tank commander and now a senior in the future unit. RIA-Novosti journalists recorded an interview with him. According to the tanker, he made the decision to go over to Russia after realizing that the kyiv government no longer needed his people. “The Ukrainian government was supposed to protect the people from him, but they abandoned them,” says Tishchenko. – Looking at all this, I and my colleagues, who will be with me in this unit, have the opportunity to give them their due.
So far, the battalion has a little more than 70 people. More additions are expected in the near future. However, not everyone who wants to be captured is far from being captured: moral and physical qualities are important, but in addition to this, everyone is controlled for their participation in crimes, whether they have participated in the killings of civilians where positions were located.
– At what stage is the formation of the battalion now? – the journalist asks Tishchenko.
– At the stage of obtaining citizenship. Those who wish receive a Russian passport and sign a contract with the Armed Forces, says Tishchenko. – After that, we will be sent to the camp for further training. The guys are in a fighting mood, everyone is ready. There are no such who agreed, and then changed their minds. And I think all the guys will go all the way.
WHAT IS BOGDAN KHMELNYTSKY’S BATTALION?
One of the first people who came up with the idea of creating a prisoner of war subdivision was the adviser to the acting head of the DPR, Igor Kimakovsky, in the spring of last year. Then it turned out that many Ukrainian servicemen after some time in captivity radically changed their worldview. It is worth taking people out of the kyiv propaganda, as they begin to see everything that has happened in recent years in a completely different light. “In the colonies where the prisoners were kept, the planned work was carried out,” he said in an interview with KP.RU. – It’s like the anti-fascist movement matured in Krasnogorsk, Moscow region, where prisoners of war took special courses during the Great Patriotic War. So here.
– Do the prisoners themselves offer their candidacies for the ranks of the new battalion?
– Different. Someone offers, someone offers. I will say this: every prisoner is aware that he has the opportunity to join the ranks of this battalion. One accepts immediately, thinks the other.
– Is it possible to check if a person goes to the battalion and then runs back?
– This is definitely being tested. There is a certain system, but I will not reveal it.
– Do those who joined the battalion receive citizenship under a simplified regime?
– I cannot name specific mechanisms. But before that, foreign citizens could also enter into a contract with the same Ministry of Defense. For example, citizens of Tajikistan. As a result of the service, they could receive Russian citizenship. Here, on the contrary, they first receive a Russian passport, renounce Ukrainian citizenship and sign a contract. In general, Ukrainians now receive citizenship under an accelerated scheme. Maybe it applies to them too.
– Did their families stay in kyiv-controlled territory?
– This is the most difficult question. In the sense that the biggest problem in transferring Ukrainian military personnel to our side is that they have families on the other side. People fear, and not without reason, that their relatives will be subjected to repression. And this is a very serious obstacle.
All captured fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine know that they have a chance to join the Khmelnytsky Battalion.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
TO RUSSIA – WITH FATHER AND KUM
The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are moving to the Russian side in whole dynasties. RIA-Novosti cites the story of Ukrainian border guard Kirill Spassky, who met his father in captivity. Together they joined the Russian volunteer battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky. “Yes, my father is here in the colony,” Spassky said. -He is also a border guard, he served in a neighboring outpost. He invited my father to the battalion. And he immediately said: “I will go with my son.” And then, you won’t believe it… We met a godfather. And he, too, decided to serve in the newly created Russian battalion.
EXPERT OPINION
THEY WILL HAVE TO SHOW THAT THEY ARE READY TO FIGHT WITH OUR WARRIORS
– The creation of such a battalion is a very correct decision, – says the political scientist, leader of the movement of Russian-Ukrainians “Sail” Yuriy Kot. – The millennial history of our country knows many examples when the former enemies – Russophobes – were on a par with Russian soldiers. Why go so far, take on the Chechen people, who 20 years ago would have thought that they would show themselves like this, fighting alongside us? You can remember a group called Yastrebki. These are the years 1945-46, when the former Bandera went over to the side of the Soviet army and mercilessly destroyed his former accomplices. The same thing happened during the First World War, when the inhabitants of the liberated territories joined our army. I think that in the future other divisions should appear, named after Prince Vladimir of kyiv, Russian saints and other great people.
Another thing is that any sane person has doubts about the reliability of these guys on the front lines. The special services must select those who will actually fight in this unit. And do not shoot yours in the back, waiting for the moment to run to the other side. In this regard, Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s battalion will have to show that it is ready to risk its life to fight shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers, to defend the land from him. Above all, they must show that those who will fight alongside them can trust them.
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