“We stood side-by-side on Karachun...”

Vladimir Putin keeps his murderous activity going. The 12 dead National Guardsmen included the service’s head of combat and specialized training, Major-General Serhii Kulchytsky. “A National Guardsman has survived and is in a serious condition,” the National Guard of Ukraine’s press office reported.

We learned about new victims of terrorist attacks near Sloviansk on May 29. The enemy shot down with MANPADS a transport helicopter which was carrying home Ukrainian guardsmen who had finished their tour of duty. “Having unloaded food and a replacement team at the fourth checkpoint, a Mi-8 helicopter of the National Guard of Ukraine was fired upon and shot down while going back to base near the city of Sloviansk, Donetsk oblast, in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area at 12:30 p.m. on May 29,” the statement reads.

“In response to the terrorists’ actions, the ATO forces carried out artillery and air bombardments of the territory from which the enemy fire came, resulting in destruction of the group of criminals involved in the attack,” the press office said.

“The general personally brought water to Mount Karachun and a replacement team of national commandos,” a Ukrainian soldier serving at the scene told The Day. According to the guardsman, the soldiers killed near Sloviansk were riot policemen from Ivano-Frankivsk. “We the Euromaidan protesters fought them on the barricades, and now we stood side-by-side on Karachun, went on combat missions together, literally shared the last loaf of bread and the last drop of water with them,” the soldier remarked. He told us that there had been an explosion 30 seconds after take-off, making the helicopter to go down, hit the ground and explode again.

During our talk, the soldier also shared challenges faced by participants of the ATO as it was conducted. “Currently, the ATO has definitely grown more active,” the guardsman noted, “but the military are bound hand and foot as they cannot shell the city where the terrorists are hiding because there are civilians there, including children. We know about all the terrorists’ roadblocks and all their positions, but hitting them is very hard, because there are civilians and their homes there.” The soldier said that the civilian population supported both the ATO and unity of Ukraine, but people had been intimidated, even though they were still reporting the terrorists’ movements to the military.

In this context, the Russian border guards’ attitude is rather cynical, as they actually create the conditions for bandits to cross the border. “At the moment, the Russian border guards have confirmed only one of all the facts of border breakings,” head of the Ukrainian Border Service’s department for media relations, access to public information and public relations Oleh Slobodian told The Day. “Regarding other cases, they said they knew nothing of them, or, for example, they had farming vehicles working in the area as planned which had allegedly been mistaken for trucks with armed men by Ukrainian border guards.”

“Some soldiers refused to go to a hot spot because of the lack of weapons,” National Guardsman Taras Bilozerov told the press in Kyiv. “We do not complain of food and body armor shortages, but we cannot survive without weapons. It is not normal that we have to assemble a working Dragunov sniper rifle out of three broken ones. Our enemies are well-equipped mercenaries.” Bilozerov also spoke about poor coordination: “For example, we detect enemy trucks carrying soldiers and weapons and passing through our area. We report it but there is no permission to destroy them, so we just observe.”

According to Bilozerov, the National Guardsmen are ready to sacrifice their lives to defend the Fatherland, but a major problem remains as the government does not hear their demands and does not satisfy even minimum requirements of the military. “At the moment, we still get a very substantial assistance from the Euromaidan community, for which we are very grateful to them,” the soldier said.

Retired colonel who served for 23 years in the Internal Troops of Ukraine, in particular in the Donetsk region, commented on the tragic events near Sloviansk on condition of anonymity:

“The helicopter was shot down because it is a war. The Ukrainian military should move to action rather than wait. While the army does nothing, it is being slowly mauled. Terrorists are waging a guerrilla and sabotage war, while our military is standing still. Why that is so is beyond my understanding. The Ukrainian army is strong enough to crush the terrorists in a month, if not sooner, but for some reason no one does anything. The terrorists captured a military unit in Luhansk, killing a conscript. They were assaulted throughout the day, and no one helped the defenders. As a result, the soldiers surrendered themselves and their weapons, and a unit in Donetsk may be next.

“The army is just standing at the checkpoints and waiting for something. It seems that no one gives the order they need. When our military took control of the airport in Donetsk on May 26, I thought it was getting better, and if they did not stop and went on, they could clear the regional administration building the same day. Now it is silence again, and nothing happens. The terrorists ride around Donetsk in APCs, trucks, whatever you like, while the Ukrainian soldiers stand still. They have taken the airport, but what is next? Soon the terrorists will begin to pull at the army’s hair from all sides including at the airport, will slip inside, maybe shoot down something else. It is not done this way. We suffer losses, people are dying and nobody is taking any action. It seems that traitors sit in the high places, while soldiers and officers are dying at the bottom.

“The armed forces have surrendered the initiative to terrorists and he who has the initiative is the winner. The Ukrainian army has better weapons, but the initiative is with the militants. Even the border has not been closed. Look, the terrorists were defeated in Donetsk airport, but more of them came across the following night. We need to close the border, preventing the militants from receiving weapons, ammunition, money, and new recruits.”