Aydar Batallion ready to fight even as unit’s future remains unclear

On June 17, the 400-member
unit of the Ukrainian army launched an unauthorized attack on Kremlin-backed
insurgent positions near Luhansk and lost the battle. Four Ukrainian soldiers
were killed and eight soldiers were taken hostages.

Now
Ukraine’s top military commanders want
to disband Aydar because of the incident, according to commander
Melnychuk.

National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy said on
June 23 that information about disbandment of the
battalion was false and President Petro Poroshenko called the
situation with Aydar a “misunderstanding.” 

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Ihor Kabanenko also
denied the intention to disband Aydar fighters. “Aydar disbandment is canceled.
Battalion will continue functioning,” he said to the ICTV station.

However, as of 11 a.m. of June 24 there was no
official order to prolong the battalion’s financing, Melnychuk said. “The officials who came to demand
Aydar disbandment are still at my office, waiting for a written order,” Melnychuk
told the Kyiv Post.

The commander also denied that the attack was
initiated by Aydar. “The
ministry was misinformed. We didn’t just initiate this fight. It was
a counterattack after our soldiers were trapped by separatists.”

Strident nationalist member of parliament Oleh Liashko
supports the battalion.

“The Aydar Battalion disbandment is a bad signal for
all Ukrainian patriots but music for separatists’ ears,” he wrote on his
Facebook page.

But whether as part of the Ukrainian army or not, Melnychuk
says the unit will fight.  

“We will help restore functioning of
infrastructure as we did till now, watch the order on the streets and protect our families from
terrorists. We will become
partisans, but we won’t leave Luhansk,” he said.  

Kyiv Post intern Solomiya Zinevych can be reached
at [email protected]