The uncertainty of the military is forcing politicians to get down to brass tacks and talk about establishing peace

The road to victory turned out to be rockier than the Ministry of Defense anticipated

Photo: Reuters

Ukrainian law enforcers are retreating from previously controlled populated areas in the east of Ukraine. At yesterday’s closed meeting of the Verkhovna Rada the leadership of the Ministry of Defense was unable to say where the new line of the front will move. At that, the leadership of the armed forces put the blame on volunteer squads for the tragedy near Ilovaisk.

Unanswered questions

Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada held a closed session «on issues of protection and defense potential of the country» with the participation of heads of law enforcement bodies. In preparing for the meeting deputies planned to hear out the report of Minister of Defense Valeriy Heletei on the events in the ATO zone, where Ukrainian soldiers suffered from several losses. But Heletei did not show up in the parliament as he flew out with President Petro Poroshenko to the NATO summit that opened on September 4 in Wales (UK). Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Rusnak had to respond to the questions of deputies. On the eve of the meeting leader of the Batkivshchyna faction Serhiy Sobolev told journalists that the closed regime of the meeting was imperative for «the straight talk». Nevertheless, in the end the conversation between deputies and law enforcement bodies did not work out as planned.

As people’s deputy of the Batkivshchyna faction told Capital on condition of anonymity, in his report Rusnak said the problems of the ATO included the weak state of intelligence, the shortage of reserves for maneuvers and the absence of closed communication. «He said the advance of the Russian forces began on August 24 for which the Ukrainian side was not ready. The result was the situation in Ilovaisk, where 107 of our soldiers died. But these are approximate figures as many soldiers are reported as missing in action,» a source conveyed to Capital the gist of Rusnak’s report.

The Ministry of Defense said the cause of the disaster near Ilovaisk was «a leak of information», the «independence of volunteer battalions» and «the lack of concise coordination between them and the military forces».

People’s deputy Inna Bohoslovska described the approach of representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff as «superficial». MP Mykhailo Blavatskiy (Svoboda) commented for Capital as follows: «The military forces complained about the lack of sources of communication, though they could not respond where 87 mn hryvnia allocated for their purchase were spent. It is the same case with the purchase of combustible lubricants. This begs the question: why did the army need 232,000 tons of A-95 gasoline?» Another deputy complained that a representative of the Ministry of Defense did not answer the questions of the parliament members. «It was said that we are retreating. We did not hear answers to questions whether we will surrender Slovyansk or not and what to do with Ukrainian patriots there,» he confirmed. Blavatskiy added that judging from the address of the representative of the intelligence unit, today there are nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers not counting members of illegal military formations on the territory of Ukraine. The number of Ukrainian troops is around 30,000. He also said that the leadership of the State Border Service ignored the meeting of the VR during which deputies raised many questions.

«Head of the SBU Valentyn Nalyvaichenko also commented showing photographs of the presence of Russian military forces on the territory of Ukraine. He was asked: «Why did we not attack them? He dodged the question,» people’s deputy Yaroslav Sukhiy (Economic Development Group) told Capital.

Cease fire

Leader of the Svoboda faction Oleh Tyahnybok said after the meeting of deputies, law enforcers and the premier that the closed meeting was not justified. «This was none other than a waste of time. We did not hear anything new,» he affirmed journalists.

Personnel issues were also not approved during the meeting. The only decision that deputies made at yesterday’s session was the creation of an ad-hoc committee that should look into the reasons for the tragedy in Ilovaisk. The meeting will be chaired by MP Andriy Senchenko.

It is also known that the Prosecutor General’s Office has launched another investigation at the behest of President Poroshenko. «Military technical examinations of the activity of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff during the conduct of operations in Ilovaisk, where many Ukrainian soldiers were killed, have been launched,» Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema told journalists. Colleagues at the Academy of the General Staff will draw conclusions on the legality of actions of the General Staff.

By the way, yesterday the Verkhovna Rada did not vote for the resolution on declaring martial law in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Speaker of the VR Oleksandr Turchynov refused to put this issue to vote.

He stated that the president is confident that an «amicable solution» is possible. Yesterday Poroshenko prognosticated that a decision on stopping the military actions could be adopted today provided that such agreements are made in Minsk. «Tomorrow at 14:00, if it’s confirmed and if the meeting takes place, I will appeal to the General Staff and instruct its leadership on bilateral cease fire. And then we can hope that the implementation of the peace plan will begin,» Poroshenko stated at the NATO summit. The president said that in addition to the cease fire it is necessary to take decisive actions for holding nationwide dialog and adopt legislative acts to stabilize the situation in the Donbas region.