Abandoned Donbas Battalion fights on
Aug. 24, 2014, 6:27 p.m. | Ukraine — by Lily Hyde
DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine --
When the Donbas Battalion stormed Russian separatist-held Ilovaisk on Aug. 18 and raised the Ukrainian flag without a single casualty, the Ukrainian media quickly reported a victory for the country’s anti-terrorism operation against Kremlin-backed insurgents.
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That version has turned out to be mostly spin that is likely to rebound on its state and media creators.
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He found that while volunteers motivated by principle and with a high fighting spirit are stranded in desperate circumstances,
government and media claim the situation is under control and reinforcements are on their way. “They are frightened of the truth,” he said. “First, they need to actually provide the help they keep promising. And second, they need to stop lying.”
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Semenchenko and Glyadelov are not the only ones accusing the army leadership and government of incompetence or worse. Mark Paslawsky, who had enrolled as an infantryman in the Donbas, consistently criticised the way the anti-terrorist operation was run in a Twitter account under the pseudonym Bruce Springnote.
He called senior leaders "fat and worthless," and described the Interior Ministry as "ruled by terror" and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as a "pathological liar."
Paslawsky was killed on Aug. 19 in Ilovaisk.
On Aug. 21, the Interior Ministry reported that 25 percent of all those from special battalions killed since the anti-terrorist operation began had been killed in Ilovaisk. The same day the national guard press office again announced the arrival of reinforcements which in fact did not arrive. There are no recent figures for how many regular army servicemen have died in Ilovaisk.
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With disillusionment and anger at the Ukrainian government and army leadership rising, it is a question how long volunteers like Semenchenko and his men will continue fighting - or rather, just where they think that fight should be taking place.
Glyadelov and his fellow photographers decided to disregard principles of wartime secrets or keeping up national morale in order to speak out about what they are witnessing: that more and more volunteer soldiers, tired of the government’s inability to support them, are talking about finishing the war in the east and then turning their guns on Kyiv.
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Some of these volunteer soldiers believe their battalions are deliberately being sent without backup to hotspots like Ilovaisk in order to remove a potential threat to the authorities. Semenchenko describes his men, now armed and seasoned fighters though many had never picked up a gun until a few months ago, as “a restraining factor” on a government many perceive to be betraying the ideals of EuroMaidan.
He suggested that after the separatists are defeated, it may be time to take the battle from the fields and towns of east Ukraine to Kyiv’s government buildings.
“If volunteers can manage equipping the army better than the army bosses, that means volunteers can run the country,” he said. But he added, “I’m not ready to burn my house down just yet. We have to be responsible about these things.”