Ukraine's Aydar battalion fighter on impeding Russian army in Donbas: Putin's plan failed (ENG video)
Who are Ukrainian fighters for Donbas? Not only career servicemen. People of varied employment are defending their native land.
Belsat TV correspondent Nastassia Jaumen interviewed Yevhen Dykyi, a company commander at battalion ‘Aydar’ and professor of biology at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Had you ever had anything to do with military arts before the conflict? How did you happen to be at war?
I have always been beside the art of war; moreover, I even failed to participate in reserve-officer training at my university. How did I find myself at the battalion? An enemy attacked my country. I was taught that all the men should throw their weight behind the country If an armed enemy comes. My students were being sent to the war; I could not shelter myself behind them. And I joined.
What were you doing at the time when [army] structures were still not shaped and Kyiv’s assistance was just sporadic? How did you survive without constant support?
Everything was based on self-organisation. The state provided us with military uniform ‘Dubok’, but it is very bad, and no one wanted to wear it. This is my uniform. Each bought their uniforms themselves. The authorities also gave us arms and – a bit later – granted us with a legal status, and that’s all. All the rest we got from our people – food, clothes, footwear, even night vision systems, binoculars, radio sets. Volunteers bought and brought these things to us.
Your enemy had powerful weapon and was rather unpredictable. How did you manage to offer resistance and get along [without support]?
At the very beginning of the war, when we were fit for nothing and when we hardly had any weapons, it was the paramilitary troops that were sent against us. In fact, these are gangs of local separatists who were called ‘militia’. Anyway, from the very start, over half oh these troops were citizens of Russia, these groups were commanded by Russian officers and trained by Russian war instructors. But still, at first this was a kind of militia army or paramilitary units. Firstly Russia was trying to cover its direct involvement, which might have saved us because we got a cushion of time. So, their chance was wasted because we learnt to fight well and forced top brass to provide us with military equipment, even old and mothballed ones. And when the regular Russian army came we had already had three-month war experience – we got to know what is to fire and what is to be under fire. And by that moment the situation with military equipment had improved a bit. That is why Putin‘s plan did not work out. Russia’s army might have stopped us from liberating Donbas but it failed to advance to borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions itself. Thus, I can say that we manage to impede the advance of the regular Russian army in the line mentioned by the Minsk agreements.
The full version in Russian:
Nastassia Jaumen
