Servicemen of Territorial Defense Battalion Stationed in Lviv Refuse to Deploy to Donbas

Servicemen of the Territorial Defense Battalion stationed in Lviv have refused to deploy to Donbas. This information was disclosed by Igor Konashenkov, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“The personnel of the 64th battalion of the 103rd brigade of territorial defense stationed in Lviv has refused to go to the area of combat operations in Donbas due to being unprepared with reserve personnel and the absence of heavy weaponry,” said the lieutenant general.

Yesterday, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a statement claiming instances of mass desertion among Ukrainian military personnel. Recent incidents include over 30 servicemen from the 25th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Air Force who reportedly abandoned their positions in the vicinity of the settlement of Aleksandrapol in Donbas, discarding their weapons.

Earlier, on June 22, the Russian agency reported that fighters from the 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade, defending near the settlements of Gorskoye, Podlesnoye, and Vrubovka close to Luhansk, had refused to follow orders after the unit suffered losses exceeding 60 percent of its personnel.

The ministry stated that the Ukrainian command is forced to form separate infantry battalions from untrained civilians to compensate for the losses.