The unit has undergone the necessary training and is equipped for combat, the group’s commander told RIA Novosti.
Russian forces fighting on the front lines of the conflict with Kiev will soon be reinforced with a battalion consisting of former Ukrainian soldiers, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the unit’s commander. The members either surrendered or were captured in battle before deciding to switch sides, according to the media outlet.
Named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky – a Ukrainian historical figure who started an uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century and led Ukraine to join Russia – the battalion has undergone three weeks of training at a Russian base, its commander, Andrey Tishenko, said. At the end of their training, they will officially take the oath pledged by all Russian soldiers, he added.
The former Ukrainian soldiers have already been equipped for battle, Tishenko said, adding that they received their uniforms, protective gear, and weapons before the training even started. The soldiers received guidance from battle-hardened, experienced instructors, he added.
The unit members told Sputnik news agency that they joined voluntarily after receiving Russian citizenship. TASS reported in March that around 70 former Ukrainian troops applied for Russian passports and expressed their wish to fight for Moscow. The size of the newly formed unit has not been made public.
According to Tishenko, the battalion will join the Kaskad operational-combat tactical group, which is under the command of the acting interior minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Colonel General Aleksey Dikiy. The location of its first combat deployment remains unknown.
The first reports regarding plans to form the unit surfaced in the media in February. In March, RT interviewed former Ukrainians soldiers who volunteered for the Russian Army, as around 100 Ukrainian POWs from Donbass reportedly wished to do so.
One of them told RT that he decided to volunteer because he has a family in a city in Donbass. “I wanted us to have peace… a future,” he said, adding that he and his family “could not have had it under the banner” of Ukraine.
“We have always been brotherly peoples,” another POW said at the time. “I’ve never wanted to fight against Russia.”
Thank you DT. This nowhere to read in western MSM
Excellent news!
I wonder how many homeless, neglected and disenfranchised American Veterans have also left for Russia via paid passage by Russia to the same?
There is a video that was produced by the Wagner Group that was aimed at recruiting American Veterans-the number is unknown as to how many left the U.S.
Now- with the satanic slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank and the U.S. on the wrong side of history, many U.S. Citizens (85%) are demanding a total stoppage of military, monetary and technological support of the terrorist ‘State’ on Israel.
With regards to the U.S. Carrier Task Force in the eastern Mediterranean, the orders that the Commanders receive from now on are supportive of the ongoing war crimes, are not in the interests of the United States, and from UCMJ Standards are ILLEGAL!
The Commanders and Captains of those vessels and Naval Air Squadrons should cease and desist in following these illegal, immoral and inflammatory orders, ignore Biden’s ‘War Powers’ note (see the Hal Turner Radio Show), and set course for U.S. Territorial Waters (200 miles from shore…) in defiance and in accordance to International Law, thus ceasing and desisting the direct and indirect support of Israel and the Israeli methodology of conducting holocaust, holodomor, and genocide against a severely oppressed Palestinian people who have been held in an open air prison for years, similar to what the J*** suffered in the same but time-shortened way as the Warsaw Ghetto.
‘Never Again’ and the hypocritical philosophy that is promoted by Zionist Noahide Law, the Babylonian Talmud, and ‘J***** Sense of Entitlement’ is going to come to an end.
Finally, the U.S. will need to with-draw from the region IMMEDIATELY and STOP sending billions of dollars to both Zionist J***** Ukraine and Zionist Talmudic Israel!
IF this continues and the U.S. sides with the illegal activities in supporting Israel and the J3wi$h Banksters, the Mossad and acting for Israel due to the same blackmailing, bribing, and compromising the U.S. Presidency and the U.S. Congress, I have no doubt that nukes will detonate on or over U.S. soil!
https://youtu.be/Xq4a8CBpTHE?si=o8earJPkTgT9Y8XY
last video col. mcgregor