Good day.
I
would like to make a short statement with respect to what is happening
around Slavyansk. With respect to what is happening here. And, well,
make an appeal, if you will.
Yesterday,
the enemy completely surrounded Nikolayevka. The enemy shelled the city
in the fiercest possible way, using all types of weapons. Using heavy
MLRS systems, howitzers, mortars, tanks, APCs. The destruction is
enormous. It is simply impossible to determine the numbers of
casualties, because nothing works in the city now.
Our
units that are in Nikolayevka at this moment continue the battle in
complete encirclement. We have no communications with them.
Nikolayevka
has been completely cut off from Slavyansk. At this very moment, a
large enemy column of armoured vehicles is moving toward Semyonovka from
the south, along the Kharkov-Rostov highway. At the same time, the
enemy is continuing uninterrupted artillery shelling of the city and of
Semyonovka. Yesterday, the Nikolayevka Thermal Power Plant was destroyed
to the ground and set on fire.
To
put it bluntly, we are dealing here with unconcealed genocide. In other
words, to break the resistance of the Militia, the enemy is using all
the available types of weaponry against the civilian population.
Naturally, seeing the destruction and the death of the civilian
population, militiamen are starting to lose the will to continue
fighting.
I
would like to say to you that, in Slavyansk, there is not one Chechen,
not one mercenary. There is not a single person here who did not come of
their own good will. If, before, 90% of the fighters were local, now
the ratio is 95%. Out of the entire garrison, there is maybe several
dozen people who came from Russia. The majority, the overwhelming
majority are citizens of Ukraine. Among them, the overwhelming majority
are Donbass residents. These are people who consciously took up arms to
defend their homes, their families, their Motherland. To defend their
language and their culture. To defend Russia. Because these people never
separated from her. They consider themselves Russian. They want to live
in Russia.
This
right was taken from them a long time ago. And now, when they tried to
restore this right, Russia does not want to help them reunite with their
people, with their big Russian family.
It
is difficult to understand and accept, that, over three months (it will
soon be three months since we arrived in Slavyansk to help the local
population defend their rights), that, over these three months, no real
help has arrived.
I
do not claim that Russia does not help. A huge stream of humanitarian
cargo, equipment, uniforms, comes to us through private channels. But,
that, which we desperately need, does not, at this time, arrive.
Please
understand, that even if we get two tanks, four, even ten tanks,
five-six artillery pieces, even if a plane flies here once, this will
have no impact whatsoever. Over the course of the ceasefire, the
Ukrainian army performed full mobilization and concentration of forces.
Over
sixty heavy artillery pieces are pointed at Semyonovka and at Slavyansk
at this time. At Kramatorsk. Two dozen MLRS systems, including Grad,
Uragan and Smerch. Heavy mortars. All of them are pointed here. The
enemy has so much ammunition – I did not see so much in Chechnya. In our
time, we did not have so many shells. And the entire set of this
artillery is shelling us without a stop. The supply columns are coming
in continuously. They are transferring in more equipment.
Kharkov
diligently repairs a dozen and a half armoured vehicles a day. We hit
one or two armoured vehicles a day. No more than that. The enemy is able
to grow its forces faster than it expends them. No just faster – much
faster.
If
Russia is not able to secure an immediate termination of fire and the
execution of a truce, or if it does not step in with its armed force to
protect us, to protect the Russian people that reside here, who are a
part of the Russian nation, we will be exterminated. We will be
exterminated in the course of a week, two weeks at most. And Slavyansk
will be the first to be exterminated, together with its still-numerous
population. Over thirty thousand civilians are still left here.
I
am being asked to take on the responsibility for their death. And for
the death of the Militia brigade under my command. We are ready to
fight. We are ready to die. But we do not want to die senselessly,
burying beneath the ruins of the city those people who believed in us.
Some
believe that I am panicking, that I not ok. Yes, I am not ok. Every
day, my soldiers are dying. The hospitals are overflowing with wounded.
It is very difficult to see children without legs, torn apart by
exploding shells.
We will continue to fight. But we desperately need help.
