Russians outnumber Ukrainians, but Ukraine’s advantage is in quality – Svoboda battalion commander
Pravda Ukraine
The Russian army is superior to Ukrainian forces technically and quantitatively, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine have an advantage in motivation and the quality of the military.
Source: Petro Kuzyk, Commander of the Svoboda (Freedom) battalion, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: “They [the Russians] surpass us in everything regarding technical equipment: the number of tanks, the quality of these tanks, the number of ammunition, the number of artillery that covers the infantry and that ensures their offensive operations, the amount of shelling, the use of aircraft, electronic warfare – these are all elements where we are outnumbered, and outnumbered fully.”
Details: At the same time, Kuzyk considers the advantage of Ukrainians to be that “we are on our land, this war is sacred for us”.
Quote: “Our advantage is in the quality of our infantry. We are protecting our families, we are protecting our people from real savages…
What else is our advantage? If you take our artillery, our artillerymen are more professional and accurate. But we are given a very limited amount of ammunition. You will be very surprised when we will be allowed to talk about these numbers.”
Details: For example, Kuzyk said there were “give or take 500 strikes” in their “small square” position in an hour when his battalion was defending Rubizhne. Whereas on the Ukrainian side, “a mortar fired twice in this time”.
Kuzyk also explained how his fighters held their positions in the battles near Horlivka, where “there was no point in holding positions, but I was given an order: ‘At any cost’.”
Quote: “Imagine when the order is given to ‘hold the position at all costs’, and I tell this to the boys, and we work. And I would like to list the soldiers who held these positions. Kostia, who goes by ‘Vandam’, the youngest soldier in our battalion. Then he was 19, now he is 20. Mine wreckage hit his face. And I gave him the order to evacuate, he said: ‘Commander, I will not leave because there is no one to hold this position’.
That time, when a soldier with the alias ‘Traktor’ refused to come out after shrapnel pierced his nose and entered his face.
When Vasyl ‘Sharhorod’ Ivashko was forcibly taken to hospital by my order after shrapnel hit his neck. He ran away from the hospital with a bandaged neck and a cellophane bag with antibiotics at 02:00. I began to shout at him, emotionally, using all sorts of vocabulary. He says: ‘Commander, there is nothing left of us. I am with you because I can’t just lie there’.”
Can you imagine the motivation of this person, these fighters?”
Details: Kuzyk emphasised that there are a lot of people like that, he can “list them for a long time”.
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