Battalion 'Donbas' commander Semenchenko to belsat.eu: There's war in Ukraine, not just ATO
Belsat.eu has asked Semyon Semenchenko, legendary commander of battalion ‘Donbas’, whether another Maidan is possible, why Belarusians are taking part in the war in Ukraine and what law the military commander will table if he is elected into the parliament.
The battalion has added not only guns to their armoury, but also some practices of Belarus’s political life, its soldiers say. If any officer started to tell lies, they applauded him in protest remembering silent protests in Belarus in 2011. Then people were taking to the streets and just clapping their hands without chanting or making speeches so that police could not arrest them for ‘unsanctioned picketing’.
Parliamentary elections
Are you going to double-job as an MP and commander?
But people do combine business, being an MP and trips to the Bahamas.
Thus, this will be just fiction?
Why? I know what laws we should adopt, but I’m not so interested in law-making. I focus on state and military security. My interests are access to information, an opportunity to defend battalions, to secure rights of troops taking part in the counterterrorist operation. I am aware of the schedule of the parliamentary sittings and I believe we’ll be working better than people combining sittings with business are.
What draft law would you put to vote first?
A law on volunteers. It will grant a status, social priviledges to the families of killed volunteers, to people who were injured, eg those from the Right Sector or ordinary people who took up arms [against invaders] like partisans. There are lots of them. For example, fighters from the Right sector are defending Donetsk airport, and officially they don’t rank as soldiers. According to the law, the state will undertake commitments to support these people post factum.
Volunteers’ battalions
You have recently said that now you are fighting not against separatists in Donbas, but against Russian troops. Are volunteer battalions wanted in such a situation?
The state doesn’t need them, because volunteer battalions seem to be a destabilising factor for them. The state and we [volunteers] have different conceptions for the word ‘stability’.
Well, who needs them?
People do. What is a volunteer battalion? This is a battle-ready unit. For example, battalions ‘Aydar’ and ‘Donbas’ were effective enough. As assault battalions, we were seizing the towns of Lisichansk, Ilovaysk, Mikolayivka, taking part in fights in Artemovsk, Dzerzhynsk. Any military unit, even a special operations’ unit, might envy us. In April we practically liberated 4 districts of Donetsk region from separatists, and there has not been a single flag of the so called Donetsk People’s Republic there since that time. In May we participated in an counterterrorist operation in Mariupol. Now we see that the state doesn’t need volunteer battalions and it will replace them with regular ones. We are ready to join the [regular] army, but in order to prevent us from losing our fighting capabilities a number of conditions should be provided.
New Maidan
Are there many Belarusian in the battalion?
There were seven, at the moment – two. The rest are waiting for the battalion’s gathering to take part in military actions.
Does Belarusians’ motivation differ from that of Ukrainian fighters?
Yes, because Ukrainians are defending their own country, and Belarusians are fighting for another country. But both Belarusian and Ukrainian fighters may feel that they have common interests and aims.
How many people are under your command?
450 persons are in the rank, 110 are injured. Some people are in the camp in dnepropetrovsk region, but they are not taking part in actions due to the lack of registration. They are being trained and instructed, a lot of them caught cold.
Why aren’t they registered?
I don’t know what [the authorities] are afraid of. After our people got into the ‘Ilovaysk trap’ they might be exploiting climate wanting to put an end to the case, to make people disperse. I can’t explain a delay in the restoration of battalion’s combat readiness. They promised to supply us with heavy vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, tanks, but in vain, we got nothing. Our officers and soldiers did not receive awards that belong them by right, prisoners of war have not redeemed.
Perhaps they fear that you may organise another Maidan?
You know, there is no need in a Maidan organised in advance, Maidan erupts spontaneuosly. <…> The next Maidan will be ‘military’, I am afraid, I don’t want further experiments on the state. I wish change would evolutionise, although it is also hard to predict the results.
Ceasefire
Did the ceasefire work out?
No. Separatists seized 38 settlement for just an hour of the ceasefire, they state. I don’t know if it’s true. But every day people do die – near Donetsk Airport, Debaltseve, Shchastye (Luhansk region).
Do residents of Donetsk and other settlements controlled by the DPR hate the Ukrainian army?
Our people who broke out of encirclement told us how they had to hole up in an apartment block in the territory controlled by the militants. They were wounded and spent there 2 weeks. According to our people, a lot of locals say they are ‘local’ and militants are ‘alien’, ‘from the DPR’. Thus, it’s not so simple even in these seized territories. I can’t say most people support separatists. Hatred … Indeed, people who watch TV have hatred. But I don’t know why.
What about anti-Ukrainian sentiments?
In my opinion, they have stilled. People see what a war means, the both sides are tired.
Calling a spade a spade
In Donbas there is a war going on, bit officially it is called ‘a counterterrorist operation’. Does this do harm?
Of course, it prevents us from mobilising our society because people in Kyiv don’t feel that the war is going on. Another issue is, for example, POWs, who don’t even have a status of POW, because … there is no war here.
Why can’t one call a spade a spade?
I believe that someone is gaining from it – maybe Putin or Ukraine’s authorities. There are definite economic and political profits. If no one gained from it the counterterrorist operation would have been considered as ‘war’ for long.
Is Ukraine ready for a big war?
No, not now.
Arkadz Nestsiarenka
