Operation Report 2019 – Week #26

Operation reports are summary of what happened in Joint forces operation zone (previously known as Anti-Terrorist Operation zone or ATO) during the last week. 

Casualties

No casualties reported.

NEW: You can now check the location of Ukrainian casualties on the map. 

Casualties map: https://militaryland.net/ukraine/casualties-map/

Military

Withdraw of equipment near Stanytsia Luhanska

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Ukrainian POWs released

Four Ukrainians, that were held by separatist forces, have been released. The deal was organized by Viktor Medvedchuk, a leader of pro-russian political party Ukrainian Choice. He travelled to occupied part of Donbas to negotiate the deal. The prisoners were transferred to Rostov (Russia), from where they flew to Minsk, where they were officially handed to Ukraine. The government of Ukraine wasn’t involved in the process. On June 28, all four prisoners arrived in Kyiv via plane.

Their names were published by a person close Viktor Medvedchuk.

• Eduard Mikheyev – captured by Luhansk separatists in 2017.
• Yakiv Veremeychyk – a soldier of 14th Mechanized Brigade. He was captured by separatists near Pervomaysk during a reconnaissance mission together with one more soldier, on May 25, 2018.
• Dmytro Velykyy – captured in 2016. He is suspected of desertion by the Security Service of Ukraine. He allegedly left his unit stationed in Pavlohrad and had been missing since. He was arrested by SBU for questioning a day after they arrived in Kyiv.
• Maksym Horyayinov – captured by Donetsk separatists in 2019. He was the driver who took a wrong turn near Novotroits’ke (Donetsk Region) and eight Ukrainian soldiers were captured as the result, according to relatives of one of his comrades. This information was later denied by the spokesman of the brigade.

Eduard Mikheyev and Dmytro Velykyy refused to comment on how and where they were captured by separatists.

SeaBreeze 2019 starts on Monday

The international exercises will be held in the north-western part of the Black Sea, in Mykolayiv, Kherson and Odesa regions. The Sea Breeze exercises are multinational military exercises, which have been held in Ukraine since 1997.

sources: radiosvoda.org, unian.info, 5.ua, tsn.ua