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Ivano-Frankovsk Soldiers Tell the Truth: “We are not encircling the separatists; they are encircling us!”
12
July, 2014
First
Ukrainian Soldier:
The situation is such that the battalion is in a difficult situation,
both in terms of resources and its territorial position. What they
show in the news – that we are encircling the separatists – is,
where out battalion is [stationed], exactly the opposite. The guys
are at the end of their rope. It’s trouble there. It’s a
disaster.
On
one side, there are the forces of the Russian Federation standing
there, practically 4 kilometres from us. And there is such military
equipment there, believe me, that nothing would help us. It’s no
longer about flack jackets and military equipment. Do you understand?
It’s a completely different [situation]. We just have to get our
guys out of there.
Unequivocally,
the battalion can’t remain there. Well, the guys stationed there,
they are like condemned men facing execution. I say this responsibly
– I was stationed there and I came from there. And even then, we
have to take them out, carefully. We have to take them out,
carefully. And, honestly, I don’t know how this [rescue] is
to be done but it must be done. It must be done and it must be done
immediately.
Let
me repeat, the situation as of today’s morning, I called there and
I called yet again: not a single unit of military equipment has
arrived, they [the soldiers] are standing in an open field.
[voices
of women in the background]
We know, we know.
An
open field. Buses – you understand the condition of those buses
that were already burned down; they were trying to escape under enemy
fire. Comrade major, who perished, he was my friend [crying], I
would ask for a minute of silence to honor him
[women
sobbing in the background]
Second
Ukrainian Soldier:
I would like to add that this battalion was sent to do a so-called
“combat mission;” this was a criminal order from the
superiors.
[in
the background, women asking]
“Which superiors, which region?”
Yes,
a regional commander, but all are guilty, we are not going to name
them now.
[woman
in the background]
It’s clear who [it is], it’s Yarko [Note:
unclear – either Yarko or Toyarko] who is on top, and he is the
only one who can give such an order
Because
the battalion we talk about, as a matter of fact, they can
perform combat mission only as formulated in the beginning – i.e.
guard duty of [important strategic] objects in the region, let’s
say, guarding certain checkpoints, but ony further away from the
epicenter of hostilities.
However
in the midst of combat action it can’t fulfill any mission because
of the lack of needed equipment. Even if such equipment were to be
provided to the battalion, there is nobody trained to use [it].
[woman
in the background]
Did you speak to the guys? About retreating, together with you?
Yes,
a large number of them agreed to this but they are literally
frightened – certain officers were holding them there by any means,
[by hook or by crook]. Many wanted to depart with us, and we were
planning to take an entire company with us. This would have been very
difficult as we didn’t [transportation], and we planned to take a
large truck. But at the very last moment they were held back.
I
want to add that starting with this criminal order pursuant to which
the guys were sent there, and we ourselves went as commanders, we
refused to obey further criminal orders because by doing so we would
endanger people and we didn’t want to
First
Ukrainian Soldier:
Yes, we don’t want to be the ones responsible for [the lives of]
our guys, do you understand?
Second
Ukrainian Soldier:
We wanted to preserve their lives and the criminal order is not …
[woman
in the background]
Yes, yes, guys … but how to get them out of there?
Second
Ukrainian Soldier:
This is precisely why we came here, to figure out a way to get them
out of there. I will finally …
Another
Speaker:
Understand that I am disclosing all of this so that everyone can
realize …
[people
talking over each other, also addressing the people coming up]
here
comes people’s deputy Derevyanko, we must finally do something.
Here, please come up here.
'At least 30' Ukrainian military killed as militia shell convoy with Grad rockets
Dozens
of Ukraine’s government troops have been reportedly killed after
local militia shelled pro-Kiev military forces with Grad rocket
launchers. President Poroshenko has vowed “killing hundreds” for
each deceased soldier.
RT,
11
July, 2014
Self-defense
troops attacked a Ukrainian military unit at around 5:00am near
Zelenopolye village in the Lugansk region, not far from the Russian
border, Kiev’s officials reported.
A
military official described the consequences of what he called “a
bloody terrorist act” as “destruction”saying
that about 30 were feared killed.
"About
30 servicemen are thought to have been killed in a shelling by
militants using Grad multiple rocket launchers at units of the
Ukrainian anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces near the village of
Zelenopolye,”Zoryan
Shkyryak, an adviser to Interior Minister Arseny Avakov, said at a
briefing. “There might
be more victims.”
However,
the Ministry of Defense press-office later confirmed the deaths of
only 19 servicemen, lowering the initial death toll. It also said
that 93 soldiers had sustained wounds, while Shkyryak put the number
of injured at 100 people.
Self-defense
forces have confirmed that they targeted the Ukrainian army convoy
with Grad rocket launchers.
“According
to our information, the Ukrainian military convoy from Lvov came
under fire. The exact number of killed is unknown; there might be two
or three dozen killed. The convoy was destroyed,” a
member of the opposition told RIA Novosti.
Speaking
in front of journalists, the Interior Ministry adviser vowed revenge
for the attack, saying that those behind it “will
be punished, either eliminated or captured, and they will answer
according to the laws of Ukraine."
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko later echoed the retaliation threats,
stating that for each of the killed men “militants
will pay with dozens and hundreds of theirs [people].”
One
of the soldiers’ wives has told the UNIAN news agency that her
husband contacted her by phone and said that fighting had started
again near Zelenopolye as opposition self-defense troops fired at a
military convoy that was transporting servicemen wounded in the
morning attack.
The
woman, who was not named, told the journalists that pro-government
troops have no equipment and ammunition to fire back.
“They
really need help and reinforcements,” she
told journalists, urging them to pass on the information to Kiev.
Meanwhile,
the spokesman for Kiev’s military operation in the east, Vladislav
Seleznev, has said that 23 Ukrainian soldiers have died in battle
between opposition and government forces in eastern Ukraine in the
last 24 hours.
“Twenty-three
members of the armed forces of Ukraine and the state border service
of Ukraine have been killed, with 93 sustaining injuries. All the
wounded are receiving medical treatment," Seleznev
posted on his Facebook page.
Seleznev
stressed that the death toll figures he shared in his post included
the number of soldiers
killed on Friday morning.
Confrontations
between the two sides in the area close to Russian-Ukrainian border
have recently intensified.
“The
epicenter of severe confrontation came closer to the state border
line,” the Ukrainian State Border control said in a statement on
Friday.
In
the wake of heavy fighting, Russia has closed three major border
crossings: ‘Donetsk’, ‘Gukovo’ and ‘Novoshakhtinsk’ on
the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to Vasily Malayev, a
spokesman for the Federal Security Service in the Rostov region.
On
Thursday, two Ukrainian border control guards were killed and another
two were injured near the Dolzhansky border checkpoint.
“This
is confirmed information, according to all law enforcement agencies
and the Ministry of Defense, and The National Guard, and the border
service," the Ukrainian National Guard's information security
chief Yury Stets said.
Meanwhile,
shelling continues all over the region with Kiev’s troops targeting
residential areas.
In
the recent attack on Friday, the Ukrainian air force fired rockets at
the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Donetsk region and destroyed a
cemetery, transformer vault and a gas pipeline.
At
the same time, opposition in Dzerzhinsk claims it has downed a
Ukrainian army jet, according to Itar-Tass.Another Kiev aircraft was
knocked out in the neighboring Lugansk region, the news agency
reported.
In
the meantime, more civilians are becoming innocent victims of
Ukrainian army shelling. In one of the latest tragedies in Lugansk, a
woman was killed as a shell landed on her apartment’s balcony.
E.
Ukraine's Lugansk: From busy city to ghost town
There
are those who have miraculously survived.
RT’s
Maria Finoshina met Andrey Girin, who brought his wife to a hospital
after their car was fired at.
“I was in the shop and I heard someone scream 'lie down on the ground.' But I yelled that my wife was in the car, so I looked out of the window, saw that she wasn't there and heard her knocking on the shop door,” he said.
The country’s deputy health minister, Vasily Lazoryshynets, said on Thursday that 478 civilians, including seven children, had been killed in Kiev’s military crackdown on the eastern regions of Ukraine – which “is unfortunately greater than the military losses.”
However, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health later reduced the civilian death toll figure, saying that the deputy minister “only provided the latest statistics on the overall mortality level.”
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