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| ‘Europe doesn't understand us': Interview with famous Ukrainian commander killed in Bakhmut |
| 2023-03-21 |
| [LRT.lt] Ukraine is mourning the death of Dmytro Kotsyubaylo, a decorated soldier and the country’s youngest commander better known as Da Vinci. He was killed near Bachmut in Donbas on March 7. On the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion, LRT sat down to speak to him in a base near the frontline. The interview was never published before. "When the war started, I was 18, and now, I’m 26. And all these years, I’ve been at the front almost without rotations," Kotsyubaylo said at the time. "We have been living in a state of war for eight years, and that is why most European countries do not understand us because they do not face this." "And we are facing the fact that tomorrow Russia could attack us," he added. On the morning of February 24, Da Vinci and his men would leave the base that had become a pro-Ukraine bastion in Avdiivka, Eastern Ukraine, complete with a mural of Stepan Bandera, Ukraine’s nationalist icon and Russia’s boogeyman, as well as a pet wolf. The unit was known as Da Vinci’s Wolves. Kotsyubaylo was the country’s youngest commander, leading men into battle from the age of 21. He chose the Da Vinci nickname because of his dream to study art, which he abandoned when the Maidan revolution began. In 2014, he joined the Pravy Sector (Right Sector) volunteers that resisted the Russian-led separatism wave sweeping across Eastern Ukraine. They later became the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps (DUK), which never became part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and functioned as a paramilitary force under the auspices of the Defence Ministry. They also lacked heavy weapons or funding, using help from volunteers and captured loot from the Russians to reinforce their outfit. In the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they continued working as they did throughout the war in Donbas — getting in contact with a local Ukrainian brigade, offering their help, and entering the fight in a particular stretch of the frontline. Only later in spring, they were incorporated into the ranks of the official military, ending the group’s path as an independent outfit that had existed alongside its political wing. |
| Posted by:Fleter Crasing2148 |
| #2 Beautifully done all around, Fleter Crasing2148. Rantburg truly is a team project. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-03-21 11:20 |
| #1 Referring link. Closed window and lost the link before posting article. |
| Posted by: Fleter Crasing2148 2023-03-21 08:47 |