Russian soldiers participate in special military operations in Ukraine (Photo: RIA Novosti).
RIA reported that soldiers of the volunteer battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky took part in the first battle against the Ukrainian army.
Previously, Russia established the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion consisting of former Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered. This is the first battalion of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in the Russian army.
The battalion was formed in February and the soldiers had eight months of training. In October, they were assigned to the Cascade Tactical Combat Force. In November, the soldiers were sworn in and deployed to the field.
Battalion commander Kirill Spassky told RIA that his unit was experiencing its first battle with the Ukrainian armed forces. Spassky, a former Ukrainian border guard, surrendered and volunteered to join the Russian forces.
In the first battle, Spassky was wounded in the leg. According to Spassky, the soldiers of Bogdan Khmelnitsky's battalion conducted the first battle with good spirit, no one was frightened, left their positions or refused to advance according to the command's orders.
Spassky's unit reached the planned positions, dug in and fought. They actively used UAVs in the battle. Spassky also shot down two Ukrainian UAVs with anti-drone guns.
Then the Ukrainians launched a heavy artillery attack and the soldiers were ordered to return to their original positions. Thanks to that, the battalion suffered no losses in the first battle.
Spassky said his unit also received support from other soldiers in the Cascade tactical task force on both flanks of the attack.
The first information about the formation of the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion appeared in February of this year. According to it, Ukrainian servicemen who voluntarily laid down their arms and sided with the Russian army joined the unit.
Most of them are Donbass natives, who were previously mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. All of them passed the information check and signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense , as well as received Russian citizenship.
In November, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that as the Ukrainian army faced strong Russian defenses, many servicemen had lost their motivation to fight, leading many of them to choose surrender rather than continue to fight.
Previously, soldier Viktor Kirichansky of the Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion said that during his service in the Ukrainian army, he did not have the opportunity to participate in many training activities. "During the 9 months of service, I only had the opportunity to practice at the shooting range 3 times," he said.
In another development, in October, Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR), confirmed that the country's armed forces had recently formed a unit consisting entirely of Russian citizens who had come to Ukraine to volunteer to join the Kiev army.
The unit, called the "Siberian Battalion", is described as consisting of Russians opposed to Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine. It is the first group of ethnic Russians to become an official part of the Ukrainian army.
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