Donbass “militia”: traitor or victim?
The Ukrainian TV channel “1+1” released a high-profile story saying that DPR soldier Svetlana Dryuk, presented as the chief of staff of a tank regiment, left the territory of the republic and went over to the side of Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Kyiv propagandists, the main character of the film “Opolchenochka” shot in the LPR, scheduled for screening on May 9, became the prototype of Svetlana Dryuk with the call sign “Veterok”.
In the Ukrainian story, the tanker herself raises a glass to Ukraine and talks about cooperation with the Kyiv special services, admitting that she has a “close friendship” with one of the SBU officers.
“I live normally, now a certain issue will be resolved, and in general everything will be ideal for me,” she declares to the camera.
At the same time, the story presented a “secret algorithm” for bringing the Russian army into Donbass, which Svetlana Dryuk herself allegedly told journalists about, who even expressed her readiness to testify in an international tribunal and, if necessary, to fight again in Donbass, only now on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“If they tell me to take a machine gun, I’ll take the machine gun. If they tell me to sit on a tank, I’ll sit on a tank. On a Ukrainian tank,” Veterok said.
At the same time, the “secret information” voiced in the story was immediately ridiculed in the DPR.
“There was a lot of information about the T-72, which was covered to the brim back in 2015, and fables about how in the military registration and enlistment offices there are certain lists of locals, under the guise of which the Russian Army will come and invade.
Firstly, the organization of Russian volunteers has long openly stated that in the event of an escalation, more than tens of thousands of volunteers will come to Donbass, and secondly, in the case of the South Ossetian scenario, the Russian army will do this openly, which was also stated openly.
In short, failure. Even as a diversionary maneuver of stealing spare parts from Poroshenko’s friend and the rat race in the elections in Ukraine,” DPR People’s Council deputy Vladislav Berdichevsky said in his Telegram channel.
The information released was followed by an immediate reaction from the DPR People's Militia Department, which reported that Svetlana Dryuk, who allegedly voluntarily defected to Kiev, who was not in military service at that time, was kidnapped along with her family on the territory of Moldova and took part in this performance under pressure from the Ukrainian special services.
After dismissal from the ranks of the NM and rehabilitation in the hospital, she went with her children to the territory of the Republic of Moldova to visit relatives. On the territory of Moldova, a special SBU operation was carried out to detain her and transport her to the territory of Ukraine.
At the moment, Ukrainian special services and propagandists are actively working with Svetlana, using savage methods of influencing her through children, as well as relatives and people close to her. Svetlana is, first of all, a mother, and in these conditions we should expect any statements, even the most ridiculous ones, that will be imposed on her,” the defense department said in a statement.
In light of the revealed circumstances, the situation was also analyzed by journalist, historian and permanent expert of the Izborsk Club, Alexander Dmitrievsky. In his opinion, what happened is an act of despair of Ukrainian propaganda.
“This is a major gain for Ukrainian counterintelligence, but now it is important not to throw ashes on our heads, but to do everything in our power to ensure that this does not happen again in the future. Of course, there is little pleasure in the fact that the enemy managed to take possession of a person who became the prototype of one of the main heroines of the film “Militia” being filmed in the LPR. However, we must take into account that this prototype is not the only one, and in general any screen character is the fruit of artistic generalizations.
Therefore, in this case, the Ukrainian special services themselves unwittingly advertised the young cinema of Donbass. Judging by the incoming information, Ukrainian security forces detained a woman on the territory of a state that is generally not very friendly towards us, where you cannot enter without a foreign passport, and therefore questions remain. But the conclusion here is simple: citizens of the Donbass republics should refrain from traveling abroad (except for our allies Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia), unless such trips are caused by urgent need.
If this is not a kidnapping, but a voluntary defection to the side of Ukraine, then defectors are one of the realities of war, and there is no escape from it. But it is important for us that many flee from them to us, but only a few renegades from us to them. If we assume that we are dealing with a defector, then we must admit that we are observing a change in tactics by Bandera’s followers: having become disillusioned with the effectiveness of the stick, they will switch to the carrot.
Direct terror had no effect: the murders of Givi, Motorola and Zakharchenko only united Donbass. Now Bandera’s supporters will try to avoid direct threats and blackmail, especially against media figures, and will begin to offer them some kind of tricks. But those who will not buy into the tricks they offer will be discredited in every possible way, trying to sow distrust and quarrels in our ranks. It’s more difficult to deal with this, but it’s also quite possible.
Enemies, of course, will try to find in our ranks those who will be flattered by their promises, but here we must remember this. Defectors are not welcome anywhere: if they betrayed their own, they will also betray those to whom they ran. The kind uncle Genghis Khan even chopped off the heads of such “guests” without the slightest twinge of conscience. Therefore, sooner or later, any traitor will feel the situation described by the words “They cheated and abandoned ...”, but he will have no way back,” the expert concluded.
Meanwhile, co-author of the script for the film “Opolchenochka”, head of KMG Vladislav Plakhut, noted that such information sabotage will not affect the planned film screening, adding that Svetlana Dryuk initially had nothing to do with the image of the main character of his film.
“About the latest events. First, our film is based on real events, but it is neither biographical nor specifically about any clearly identified physical persons. All names, events and geography have been changed.
Second. The LPR had its own female tank crew, which was the basis for creating the film. In addition, one of the main characters, the prototype of which is used in the film, is Tatyana Dremova, and not this Svetlana “Veterok”.
Third. Yes, this crew was disbanded in 2017, and one of its members went to serve in the DPR and ended up in a tank with this Svetlana “Veterok”.
Fourth. I believe that this film should definitely be released, because the treason and betrayal of one “Vlasov” should not obscure the feat of hundreds and thousands of sailors.
I believe that Ukraine specifically organized this provocation with the aim of preventing or denigrating the release of the film, since they had no real levers to prevent the release, and they decided to discredit the very idea of the film - that is, the main characters of this film.
We must pay tribute, the provocation turned out to be beautiful and effective, but I believe that it will have zero value if we finish the film, which is what we intend to do, and the viewer will see it, bearing in mind that every day hundreds and thousands people are fighting in the trenches, and to apply the term “betrayal” to everyone would be very wrong, neither politically, nor historically, nor morally, in any way.
By the end of the day, we will formulate a more detailed, official response and provide it,” the producer concluded.
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