The Battle for Novorussiya

[Lauren Johnson]

Here is a discussion of the near major catastrophe on 4/13 by Gleb Bazoff:

#VOSTOK BattalionBrief Commentary on the Battles at #Peski and #Spartak on Apr 13, 2015

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Brief Commentary on the Vostok Battalion and the Battles at Peski and Spartak on April 13, 2015

1. I stand by my assessment of the situation and the situation report I delivered earilerin their totality. The only caveat to this statement is that I have not disclosed in their entirety all the details of the defensive breakdown and the subsequent restoration of the status quo that I have since become aware of. The additional details paint a worse situation than I initially believed. I do not find it necessary to share them, and others have already done so in the Russian blogosphere. I am fully confident that the DPR leadership and the NAF command have since addressed or are in the process of rectifying the shortcomings that became apparent in the course of the battles on April 13, 2015.

2. My assessment of the situation includes my comments about Vostok Battalion's defensive breakdown and withdrawal from their positions at Peski and Spartak, and I stand by them. A lot goes into my situation reportsmuch more than may be immediately apparent. The information I present to my readers , particularly controversial information, gets thoroughly tested against available sources and undergoes my own version of the Occam's razor analysis and holistic assessment. If I present information, it comes from sources I trust and have found to be reliable over time.

3. Preempting the most likely criticism, I note that I do not have an agenda against the Vostok Battalion, but I do, in fact, have an opinion about the Vostok Battalion leadership. The difference between an "agenda" and a negative "opinion" is in the approach to criticism. I do not go out of my way to assail the Vostok Battalion or besmirch its reputation; however, nothing will ever prevent me from speaking about the quality of their leadership whenever their commanders make grave errors, such as what happened on April 13, 2015. This is the real difference between an agenda and an opinion. You will find that it has been months, and certainly weeks, since I made any comment about the Vostok Battalionnegative or positive.

4. While I have nothing but respect for the servicemen of the Vostok Battalion, I lack any respect for the unit's leadership, and, specifically, for Khodakovskiy. He has proven himself to be duplicitous, an inept commander who led his fledgling unit to the first real defeat of the NAF at the Donetsk Airport in May 2014, where 36 fresh, untested, Russian volunteers were killed, possibly even by friendly fire as they were being evacuated, in a poorly planned and executed attack on Ukrainian positions.

5. Since then, there have been plenty instances of Khodakovskiy's strategic and tactical blunders, as well as several situations where the Vostok Battalion abandoned its positions, leading to defensive breakdowns. The latest memorable instance was in January, where Vostok's withdrawal from positions at Spartak and Peski almost led to a Ukrainian breakthrough that was thankfully repulsed by the NAF. I attribute these issues not to the quality of Vostok's soldiers, but to its poor leadership. In fact, there is a lot of reason to believe that Khodakovskiy was involved in the planned surrender of Donetsk that was averted only by Strelkov's arrival from Slavyansk with his brigade last summer. Khodakovskiy is propped and remains in command largerly because a lot of private funding and supply sources from Russia (including through Kurginyan's organization) are tied to him. He is, for that reason, difficult to remove.

6. Finally, I am not the only commentator that offered serious criticism about the handling of the situation at Peski and Spartak on April 13, 2015. Colonel Cassad, Militiaman Zhuchkovskiy, El Murid, Eduard the Communist, and others share my assessment in whole or in part, and offered similar situation reports at the time.

7. Finally, with respect to the DPR/NAF leadership's and Givi's comments about what happened. While I fully respect their desire to demonstrate their support for the Vostok Battalion, their statements, in my opinion, are damage control. War is all about morale that is often propped up by necessary deception. I would be surprised if the DPR/NAF command came out with harsh criticism of Khodakovskiy at this critical juncture. However, I have a different opinion of what needs to be done.

EDIT: Givi's alternative statement