The General Staff is suffering from the upcoming elections to the Verkhovna Rada and the ATO failures

The problems of the military in Ilovaisk reinforced the friction between the leadership of the ATO

Photo: Reuters

Yesterday, several hundred activists held a demonstration in front of the General Staff and the Presidential Administration demanding to send support to the law enforcers surrounded in Ilovaisk. As the demonstration proceeded, the demands were made to dismiss Minister of Defense Valeriy Heletei and cleanse the staff of the General Staff. This coincided with the aggravation of internal conflicts inside the General Staff.

Two groups of influence

According to information that Capital has, the situation in the General Staff has been complicated for long due to the conflict of its leadership. A source of the publication said the situation was aggravated immediately after Valeriy Heletei was appointed the Minister of Defense and Viktor Muzhenko was appointed Chief of the General Staff. After these appointments, two groups that are in opposition to one another were formed.

The first group is made up of officers that are close former Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces Mykola Petruk. By the way, in early spring he joined the National Movement of Resistance organized by ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

The second group is made up of those that support Muzhenko and Heletei. “The situation was difficult over all this time, but after that the battalions in Ilovaisk were surrounded it turned into an open conflict,” said one interlocutor.

In the second group there are those that support Muzhenko and Heletei. “The situation over this whole time was complicated, though after the encirclement by battalions in Ilovaisk it turned into an open conflict,” said our interlocutor.

He said recently there were misunderstandings in the ATO Headquarters between the command of the National Guard and the voluntary battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Armed Forces. “It was anticipated that there would be a relocation of forces in the ATO zone, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs began demanding a quicker distribution of weapons and technical hardware,” he specified.

Advisor of the Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Herashchenko confirmed for Capital that there was a misunderstanding between the two departments due to the disagreement on the arming of the special battalions of the MIA. However, he assured that today the military and police forces settled all disputed issues. The most recent acts of the General Headquarters were due to the dissatisfaction of the people with the slow decision-making regarding assistance for those surrounded in Ilovaisk. “Authorization to resolve this problem lies with the Commander-in-Chief of the ATO Vasyl Hrytsak and his assistant and Head of the General Staff Muzhenko. Nobody else can make such decisions,” said Herashchenko.

As a reminder, the fight for Ilovaisk began on August 18 and after two days the press service of the National Guard informed that the city was taken under control. On August 21, the terrorists engaged in a counter-attack and on August 27 the forces of the ATO in the city were encircled.

Political sub-text

The Ministry of Defense officially does not admit that there is an internal conflict. Advisor of the Minister of Defense Oleksandr Danylyuk told Capital that the demand for the dismissal of Heletei and rotation of the General Staff was provoked by political forces. He refused to name them, though he noted that there many candidates willing to take a position in the General Staff. “The new leadership of the Ministry of Defense within the framework of the ATO liberated three fourths of the occupied territory. Clearly, somebody is dissatisfied with this or somebody wants to be a part of its success,” he said.

Former minister of defense Oleksandr Kuzmuk associates the protests at the General Staff with the start of the parliamentary election campaign. He said political forces that are trying to gain popularity may be involved in organizing them. “It is quite possible that not everyone understood that there is war in the country and not only elections. If this continues, I’m afraid that no parliament will be elected,” he forewarned.

A source of Capital in the General Staff associates the protests at the Ministry of Defense with the activity of the Batkivshchyna party leader. As a reminder, yesterday Tymoshenko stated the need to declare a state of war in the country in response to the incursion of the Russian army onto Ukrainian territory.

President Petro Poroshenko yesterday announced the deployment of the Russian troops to Ukraine calling an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. The decisions made at the meeting were not known when the paper went to print. However, before that Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Hennadiy Zubko stated that “the military situation is beneficial for the Russian aggressor” as a warring country cannot receive international aid.