Mariupol defenders tell how the commander of marines fled the city

Sunday, 8 May 2022, 15:09

ROMAN PETRENKO — SUNDAY, 8 MAY, 2022, 03:09 PM

Illia Samoilenko, an intelligence officer, said that the commander of the 36th Brigade of Ukrainian Marines, Volodymyr Baraniuk, decided to flee the encircled city of Mariupol, taking with him people, tanks and ammunition.

Source: Samoilenko during a briefing from Azovstal

Samoilenko's Quote: One could run away like a coward, think only of one's own life, but not think about one's own duty, the oath that one took upon oneself. This is exactly what happened to the commander of the Marines of the 36th Brigade. He simply refused to carry out the order that was issued to him.

And he tried to flee the city with a small group of working tanks, armoured combat vehicles, [and] ammunition…

... here (from Mariupol - ed.) it is impossible to break through, but if you think only about your own life, you will grab every opportunity to prolong this life.

It's a big shame."

Details: Samoilenko noted that the Azov Regiment is now more than 100 kilometres from the original positions.

Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment, also spoke about this in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda.

Prokopenko's Quote: "Then, unexpectedly, [Volodymyr Baraniuk], the commander of the 36th Brigade decided, without warning anyone, to simply make a breakthrough in an unknown direction and thereby lost many people. Also, many people were left to their fate, and they were simply captured.

If this had not happened, with this brigade we would have been able to keep the defence on the right bank for a long time, but the flank was exposed, and after the completion of the clearing of the Ilyich plant, the enemy threw all their forces in our direction - this allowed them to attack us from the flank and rear."

Reminder: Russian media (RosSMI) has already shown Baraniuk in captivity.

For more on this, read also: Commander of "Azov" Denys Prokopenko (Redis): We did everything possible and impossible to deflect the superior forces of the enemy