“It was a humanitarian action” - the brigade commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces justified himself for the capture of Staromaryevka
Ukrainian Armed Forces units illegally occupied the village of Staromarievka, allegedly to provide "humanitarian aid" to local residents, but were driven out by Donbas defenders.
Brigade commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmitry Brizhinsky announced this on the YouTube channel "Army Inform", reports a correspondent for "PolitNavigator".
“The head of the military-civil administration approached the leadership of the brigade in order to ensure a regime of silence and security in the area of the settlements of Granitnoye and Staromaryevka and to carry out a humanitarian action to provide assistance to local residents who are currently in uncontrolled territory.
And I, as a commander, decided to appoint appropriate personnel in order to ensure a safety zone for representatives of our community while working,” he wrote.
After carrying out the appropriate preparatory work, the units occupied the village of Staromaryevka, allegedly to ensure working conditions for the military-civil administration there.
“During the day, when the military-civil administration worked in the locality, they completed their tasks. After the civilian group had worked, at night the security units left the areas around Staromaryevka and took up their old positions.
No one showed any capture or desire to move forward. This is all fake and an invention of our opponents,” says Brizhinsky.
The brigade commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine emphasized that the population greeted the Ukrainian occupiers supposedly very positively - despite the fact that almost all local residents had LDPR documents.
However, he did not mention the fate of 37 citizens of the Russian Federation who lived in Staromaryevka at the time of the capture of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“In general, they say that they want there to be some kind of solution - either here or there. And in general they were very positive - they thought that this was forever, that the Ukrainian authorities were taking control of this settlement,” the militant commander reasoned.
Brizhinsky also assured that the defenders of Donbass used “rifled barrel artillery” to drive the invaders out of the populated area. As a result, one Ukrainian militant was killed and another was wounded.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces brigade commander admitted that it was he who asked the command to use the Bayraktar drone against Donbas when it became clear that holding Staromarievka would be impossible.
“I knew that Bayraktar was operating in our zone, so I turned to the OOS command with a request to support us with firepower. And I am very grateful to the leadership of the Armed Forces that the decision was quickly made to use Bayraktar,” he said.
It should be noted that, despite Dmitry Brizhinsky's assurances that the Bayraktar would be used exclusively for "defensive" purposes, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have organized constant patrols of the line of contact with Turkish drones.
In addition, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych admitted that the decision to use Bayraktar was agreed upon with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"It was a humanitarian action" - Ukrainian brigade commander justifies the seizure of Staromarievka