Former Ukrainian soldiers from the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion have undergone their first battle as part of the Russian Armed Forces, serviceman Kirill Spassky from the detachment told Sputnik.
“[We] endured the first fight with dignity – we didn’t retreat or run, we stormed forward. When [we] reached positions, we entrenched there and had another round of fight. After [we] entrenched, enemy birdies [Ukrainian drones] came. I had an anti-drone gun. I downed two birdies, then they started a mortar attack – with mines, with AGS [grenade launcher] – and I had no opportunity to use my gun anymore, so being in charge, I ordered a retreat,” he said.
Spassky, a former Ukrainian soldier, voluntarily laid down his weapons and surrendered to the Russian Army, believing that Russians and Ukrainians are one nation. He was wounded during his first sortie against Ukrainian forces, but stayed in charge and cared about his men until they safely returned to Russian positions.
Earlier Sputnik reported that former Ukrainian soldiers who wish to fight alongside Russia will be united into one battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Khmelnitsky was a Ukrainian warlord and politician (hetman) in the 17th century who started a national uprising against occupation by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and reunited with Moscow, believing Ukraine to be a part of the Russian Tsardom.
The fighters from the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion believe that their people can prosper only as a part of Russia and say that Ukrainians virtually became hostages of Volodymyr Zelensky and his cronies.