“After graduating from the Academy of Ground Forces in Lviv, I ended up in the 501st Coastal Defense Battalion in Kerch, which later became a Marine Corps battalion. I remember those times very emotionally, because these circumstances affected me, a young officer. [2014 года] very impressed. We trusted our commander and expected any decisions from him then. But they didn’t hear any decisions, and in general, he remained to serve in the Russian Federation,” Volynsky said.
According to him, then “less than three dozen people” from the unit left for the mainland of Ukraine, the rest betrayed their oath and remained in the Russian Federation.
“Some [предателей потом] we eliminated them, and some continue to serve 100%,” the Marine noted.
The journalist asked Volynsky what kind of mood reigned among his brothers, who then betrayed their oath.
“At the first stage, I think everyone was ready to complete the tasks. Then, when there was isolation [военной части]there was no clear leadership and orders, the entire military vertical and discipline began to collapse. I remember when the commander of the military unit, Sayenko, brought the first Russian general into the territory of the military unit, my subordinates and I barricaded ourselves in the officer training room for meetings, closed the door with a safe, threw a chain-link fence from the bed onto the windows and demanded that he kick out the Russian general. We achieved this,” he replied.
Volynsky recalls that after this they “simply left the military unit with weapons and went underground, roughly speaking, until the evacuation was organized.”
He told how it became clear then that war was starting.
“When the missiles went through the crossing, it was clear then. This was before the “referendum” [16 марта 2014]]. When we were driving, there was a rumble for about five to seven days. Everyone understood what was happening there. And then the Cossacks appeared, beating the military outside the military unit. And when we saw that there was no longer a police force, there was no longer free movement of citizens around the city, when the city became simply empty, it was clear that something was happening. And this is definitely called war,” Volynsky described.
According to him, it was from the marines who then left Crimea for the mainland of Ukraine that the battalion was subsequently formed again.
Context
Volynsky served in the ranks of the Marine Corps in Crimea, after the annexation of the peninsula he continued to serve in Nikolaev, in the Marine Corps unit. ATO participant. At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, he was part of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade and served as its commander.
In May, together with other defenders of Azovstal, on the orders of the highest military leadership of Ukraine, he left the plant and surrendered.
In September five commanders of the Mariupol garrison, in particular Volynsky, were released from the Russian Federation as a result of a prisoner exchange, and they stayed in Turkey. The defenders returned to Ukraine in July 2023.
“Upon my return, the then commander of the Marine Corps never contacted me, there were no offers for any positions. By orders of the commanders-in-chief, two appointments to ground brigades were given with a demotion. I took this personally and completed my service in the Armed Forces,” Volynsky UP said.
He is involved in charity work.
