Ukrainian troopers in Artemovsk: “Poroshenko is lying!”

Our source in Artemovsk reports that the remnants of Ukrainian units having “broken through” from the Debaltsevo cauldron — there are about 1000 of them, more than one third of the troopers wounded and shell-shocked — are on the brink of rebellion. Ukrainian troopers claim that they had been betrayed, and Petro Poroshenko is personally responsible for this betrayal.
The tragedy of the “breakthrough” from the cauldron occurred under the following circumstances:

On February 17 the command of the 128^th Transcarpathian  independent mountain infantry division in the person of Colonel Sergey Shaptalo entered into negotiations with the commanders of storming Debaltsevo units of the DPR and LPR Army. At the moment Sergey Shaptalo was the most senior officer of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the cauldron, as all the top command of the sector “S” fled from the “non-existent” pocket a week before.  According to the words of the troopers Shaptalo negotiated the exit of the 128^th brigade in trucks with light firearms. However in the course of implementation of the agreement he tried, under the pressure of Kiev, to withdraw a convoy of armoured vehicles. It happened so that the staff column and approximately half of the personnel passed freely, and the second and the third convoys consisting of armoured vehicles, the separatists” crashed to pieces.

Notably, as a result of retreat of the 128^th brigade, units of the DPR and LPR Armies thanks to the ensuing gap in Ukrainian defense had practically eliminated the Debaltsevo cauldron, having captured without fighting, for instance, locality of Olkhovatka, in which Ukrainian Army abandoned several dozens of armoured vehicles and a lot of artillery. According to different estimates made by the troopers that retreated to Artemovsk, after their retreat about 3000 men remained in the cauldron. Most probably they had already surrendered to militiamen. Also, in the process of the march on Artemovsk about 300 troopers from the 128^th brigade and other units surrendered to the DPR Army on their own accord.

Spirit of the Ukrainian soldiers who had broken through from the cauldron and stationed in Artemovsk is very low, and it got still lower owing to the arrival of Petro Poroshenko in Artemovsk, who in rush-rush regime posed with the task force (those who left with the staff convoy unhindered) and made a speech praising the wise command who “saved” the people from the “Debaltsevo stronghold”.

The troopers took this speech as equivocal, because they had been lied to constantly in the course of the last two weeks: they were not told that they had been encircled, they experienced food shortages, they were abandoned by almost all their commanders, and, to crown it all, during the march out the commanders had bluntly violated the agreement with the militia for the sake of Poroshenko’s image, which led to heavy losses. Hospitals in Artemovsk are full of wounded soldiers, they brought with them about a hundred bodies, and no one knows how many dead troopers were left lying in the fields. Different figures are presented — from 150 to one thousand.

Semyon Semenchenko became the most popular figure among Ukrainian troopers, as he is “the only one who tells the truth”. On the whole the troops are disorganized and demoralized, they openly disobey their commanders and curs them in their face; the rumour is circulating about the deserters who shot several Security Service agents on the road to Kramatorsk yesterday.

Perhaps, such sentiments will become the beginning of the end of Ukrainian Armed Forces as an organized military force.

Roman Nesterenko for “Zhurnalistskaya pravda”