Dnipro-1 battalion commander Vladimir Shilov called Ukraine's military leaders at best incompetent and, at worst, betrayers of their soldiers on the front lines in Russia's war against Ukraine.
At a news conference, Shilov complained about orders from Ukraine’s military leadership that saw the same points being taken and abandoned, only to need to be taken again, in the separatist-controlled east.
Soldiers are angry, he said, not only because of poor leadership but because they aren’t being given enough weapons to win the fight.
“I hope it is incompetence, but on the front lines peoples are talking about betrayal,” he said in a press conference at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center on Aug. 27.
For instance, Shilov said that his unit had been ordered to take the village of Pesky in Donetsk Oblast only to be ordered to abandon it, and then to take it again.
Shilov’s remarks came as he seeks medical treatment for injuries in Kyiv and calls on Ukrainian authorities to provide his unit with heavy arms.
“Heavy weaponry is being used against us. Large calibre sniper rifles and machine guns are being used from 800 meters to a kilometer away,” he said. “We have asked many times to be given heavy weapons sniper rifles and high calibre machine guns.”
Shilov said the Ukrainian army had such weapons available but was not making them available.
In recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Russia providing separatists with heavy arms and military vehicles entering Ukraine from Russia.
“Without weapons, battalions cannot be effective against terrorists,” he said.
