The Battalion They Tried to Destroy with Lies
Source: Author’s Facebook page
Ostracized in journalistic circles, blogger Volodymyr Boyko unleashed a vicious attack on the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion, which was stationed at the European Solidarity party headquarters during the first days of the full-scale invasion.
According to Boyko, “Poroshenko created a rear battalion,” in which he allegedly hid about 40 subordinates. Among the people whom Poroshenko “hid,” Boyko named Volodymyr Omelyan, Vasyl Burba, Volodymyr Viatrovych, and even… Robert Brody.
Yes, yes—Madyar, who currently heads the Unmanned Systems Forces. Putting Madyar in the dustbin is quite a bold statement, with all due respect to him as an organizer and commander.
So, congratulations to all current and former servicemen of the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion — according to this logic, they all served in a battalion allegedly “created by Poroshenko.” What’s more, Volodymyr Boyko himself served in the 206th Battalion.
Which apparently makes Boyko an even bigger “Poroshenko loyalist” than Sasha Pogrebysky or me. Now let me explain why.
I joined the 206th Battalion in early March 2022, shortly after my UAV was shot down near Bilohorodka. After that, I reached out to my friends among the so-called “”Porohobots”—and that’s how I ended up in the 206th.
The battalion already existed, but organizationally, it was in complete chaos. I submitted my application to join the unit, but until the occupiers were pushed back from Kyiv, it was never processed, so I carried out missions as an officially registered civilian.
From what I saw, nearly three-quarters of the battalion’s fighters were in the same situation. Why? Because volunteers — and not just “Porohobots” — were pouring into the battalion so fast that the command simply didn’t have time to process and formalize everyone.
By the way, the commanders were appointed by the TRO command, not Poroshenko. Created by Poroshenko, you say?
Boyko writes that “Poroshenko hid close people in the 206th.” I am very interested to know that Yuriy Biryukov, Oleksandr Pogrebysky, and I did not belong to such a group, because we left the 206th immediately after the fighting near Kyiv ended. Specifically, I wrote a statement that I was in the battalion as a volunteer; I have no complaints, and goodbye.
A few weeks later, I was drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sent to my place of service—to the reconnaissance unit of the 72nd Black Cossack Infantry Regiment. Warm greetings to everyone who claims that I work for Poroshenko.
By the way, the 206th almost immediately left Kyiv for the Kherson region, where it immediately entered the battle again. A rear battalion, like…
I left the battalion, and Boyko ended up there. There are two versions. Either Boyko is a secret agent of Poroshenko and is deliberately telling nonsense, or Boyko is brazenly lying; the 206th was an ordinary TRO battalion, which people got into, in particular, through mobilization. And so, at the beginning of the invasion, the 206th was actively helped by the Petro Poroshenko Foundation. But it helped many people. I saw Yura Hudymenko, Tanya Chornovol, and many others at the EU office in those days who had not served in the 206th.
Boyko is lying about something else. The 206th participated in the defense of Kyiv. The 206th covered the evacuation of civilians from Irpen. After all, there was a case when units of the 206th guarded the government quarter—the very Office of the President, where Zelensky did not escape from the anti-nuclear bunker, where everyone was suffocating with warm mivina, where Yermak did not have armor, Arestovich was waiting near the windows with a grenade launcher, and from where Tatarov made raids to kill Chechens.
Many participants in those events are still alive today.
But then the story got really bad.
Let’s start with the fact that Boyko is an old friend of collaborator Tatyana Montyan. And here’s what’s strange. Boyko’s interview was first happily reprinted by Green Media Trash. And then, Margarita Simonyan’s Russia Today, the green media’s information is word-for-word. Spavdy is curious?
I’m used to the fact that the military is divided into “right” and “wrong” depending on beliefs. I regularly read about how I incorrectly flew a UAV near Bakhmut and Vugledar and how I “ran away to the instructors” from ZEbotva (and not only from them). Now, entire battalions are declared “wrong.”
These people are then surprised that civilians have stopped respecting them.
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