A fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Stanislav Grinchenko, who surrendered along with his colleagues in the Zaporozhye direction, said on December 22 that he wants to get a Russian passport and is ready to fight in a special operation on the side of Russia.
“My brother, a citizen of the Russian Federation, takes part in the SVO. Parents, mother, father, sister – basically my whole family lives there (in Russia – Ed.). Since the whole family lives in Russia, and (they – Ed.) are citizens of the Russian Federation, I would like to make a decision to fight with my brother together and accept Russian citizenship,” he said in a conversation with “RIA News”.
As Grinchenko noted, before going to the front, he received 14 summonses from the Ukrainian authorities, but was in hiding, not wanting to fight. According to him, the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have no combat experience, and the unit was not properly formed; they managed to recruit only 15 people. After conscription and training, Grinchenko’s unit stayed in the combat zone for only two days. He shared that he wanted to surrender from the very beginning of mobilization. He refused to participate in the prisoner exchange and categorically rejected the possibility of returning to Ukraine.
Earlier, on November 22, the first group of the Russian battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky, consisting of former Ukrainian prisoners of war, part of the operational combat tactical formation “Cascade”, left for a combat mission.
On November 7, soldiers of the first unit of the Bohdan Khmelnitsky battalion took the oath of allegiance to Russia. Battalion commander Andrei Tishchenko noted that after taking the oath, the soldiers will go to the front line.
On October 27, Tishchenko reported that the battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky entered service in the Russian operational combat tactical formation (OBTF) “Cascade”.
The formation of the battalion named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky became known on February 27. Tishchenko indicated that there are about 70 people in the unit. Of these, 95% are former Ukrainian military personnel with combat experience. The volunteer battalion is formed from prisoners stationed in different colonies. Contracts with volunteers are concluded with the RF Armed Forces on general terms.
On the same day, former Ukrainian border guard Kirill Spassky said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers who surrendered renounced Ukrainian citizenship, accepted Russian citizenship and joined a volunteer battalion as part of the Russian Armed Forces.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 last year, continues. The decision was made against the backdrop of an aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
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