In Zaporozhye, a territorial defense battalion was created only on paper, - media
Zaporozhye, May 23 (Navigator, Victoria Litovchenko) – In Zaporozhye, journalists questioned the existence of a territorial defense battalion, the creation of which was reported by both the military and officials.
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The initiative to create a territorial defense battalion was announced two weeks ago by the Chairman of the Zaporozhye Regional State Administration Valery Baranov. But, as Radio Liberty reports, the battalion has not yet been shown to journalists, so they began to look for it on their own.
“It’s definitely not on the border with the Donetsk region. I was there for two days. There are formations from Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk, but they haven’t heard of Zaporozhye on the border,” said Valery Zotov, editor of the Zaporozhye weekly Prav.Da.
Journalists from another publication managed to find only a few dozen employees of this formation, and the media did not get the feeling that the fighters were particularly patriotic.
“Near one village in the Rozovsky district, far from the Donetsk region, I found about 30 battalion employees. I talked with the senior lieutenant. The main thing that surprised me was the mood of the fighters. According to this commander, I understood that they do not believe in the presence of Russian special services in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. He told me that he would not shoot at the “Russian brothers,” said one of the journalists who spoke with those “found.”
However, the regional military commissariat claims: the battalion has not only been created, but there are already first successes.
“The task of the high command to form a territorial defense battalion has been completed. The first territorial defense battalion that we formed, after completing combat repair measures, was transferred to the regions of the region, and then received the task of occupying certain areas in the Donetsk region,” noted Deputy Regional Military Commissioner Mikhail Logvinov, as quoted by Radio Liberty.
The regional military commissariat announced its intention to create a second such formation.