“I want them to take Slavyansk with a fight, and they surrender” - Turchinov recalled 2014
It was not possible to stifle the Russian Spring in Donbass, since the local population there is “more poisoned” than in Kharkov.
The ex-secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, acting, stated this on the air of the Ukrainian Channel 5. President of Ukraine in the first months after the Maidan, Alexander Turchynov, reports PolitNavigator correspondent.
The presenter asked if there was a chance to stop the Russian Spring in Donetsk and Lugansk in the same way as it happened, for example, in Kharkov.
“Unfortunately, at that time only Kharkov fighters could complete these tasks. There (in the Donbass - ed.) a more complex system developed; there was a more poisoned local population, which was more actively used as a shield in order to stop and protect those who were in the buildings.
And when they saw that it would be localized anyway, they began to send in their special forces, trained groups, one of which captured Slavyansk, a number of more fighters captured Gorlovka, and captured several more settlements. And this could no longer be qualified even as a separatist institution, it could no longer be qualified as mass riots, because they abandoned already trained fighters with quite serious weapons - machine guns, grenade launchers, machine guns. And that was actually a military invasion,” says Turchynov.
“When Slavyansk was captured on April 12, and I gave the command to conduct a local anti-terrorist operation, to assemble Alpha. Moreover, we reinforced this “Alpha” with military units, and the task was to knock out these special forces from Slavyansk and liberate the city. And they marched in a column to complete this task. This was not a large-scale ATO, but a local one - to exclusively liberate Slavyansk.
Their progress was stopped by civilians, they called on the phone: “They won’t let us in,” just like they won’t let us in - go ahead, come on! And while they still couldn’t advance further, Russian special forces bypassed them and simply shot them,” said the former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
At the same time, the “bloody pastor” remembered the militants of the volunteer battalions with particular warmth.
“They were motivated, they went, realizing that they might not return, understanding that it would be difficult to fight against a tank with a machine gun, but there was no other option. At the same time, our armed forces units had to learn how to fight.
The main tragedy for me was a colossal blow for me when I gave the order to the paratroopers of the 25th brigade through Kramatorsk to the rear, so that they went in and took Slavyansk in battle, and they were disarmed without a single shot. They, without resisting, gave up their weapons and surrendered,” the former acting commander recalled with bitterness. President of Ukraine.
“They gave away heavy weapons, repaired armored personnel carriers, a Nona mortar, and something else self-propelled. Imagine, instead of an attack on Slavyansk, we see Russian soldiers, these bandits who helped them, posing in front of television cameras on our military equipment with Russian flags. Then in my heart I gave the command to disband the 25th brigade, and the veterans came to me and said: “Alexander Valentinovich, they will wash away this shame with blood.” That’s what happened,” Turchinov complained.
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