On July 9, 2023, quotes from an interview with the Ukrainian military were dispersed on Russian-language resources-he allegedly stated that he remained at the factory in Mariupol only because of pressure from the authorities. We checked how reliable such messages are.
As stated in publications, Sergey Volynsky (call sign of Volyna), recently Returned In Ukraine, along with other defense commanders, Azovstal, in an interview with the Turkish media, said: “I would like to engage in preparing replenishment. My combat experience is limited to the defense of Mariupol, and since then the military affair has been greatly moved forward. You need to learn all this. I don’t want to go to the front line right away. Perhaps this would be important for propaganda, but we were already kept “for propaganda” for almost a month in the catacombs near Azovstal, where we meaninglessly lost hundreds of our fighters. And, probably, almost everyone would have died there if it were not for the intervention of the Americans who agreed with the Russians to withdraw their high -ranking officers from the object in exchange for the surrender of the garrison ... ”
They wrote about this resources such as Eurasia Daily, TV channel "Tsargrad" Ryb.ru, "Reporter" Avia.pro, Bloknot, "VK press". The news was widely used in Telegram - in particular, channels shared it "Outpost"(644,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Colonelcassad (569 000), Zergulio (202 000), "Putin in Telegram"(190 000), Brief (176 000), "The image of the future"(113,000) and"What happened?"(113,000).
Defense The Mariupol Metallurgical Enterprise "Azovstal" continued from March 18 to May 20, 2022 and ended with the surrender of the military who remained at that time in the plant. Although Russian officials repeatedly declared about plans The public tribunal over the fighters of the Azov regiment and other units, many defenders of Mariupol subsequently exchanged several times. The largest exchange took place on September 21 last year, when 108 people were released from Russian captivity, while Five of them: Azov commander Denis Prokopenko (Radis), his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar (Kalina), commander of the commandant company Oleg Khomenko (APIS), and. O. The commander of the 36th separate brigade of the Marine Corps Sergey Volynsky (Volyna) and the commander of the 12th operational brigade Denis Schleg-according to the agreements, were sent to Turkey under personal guarantees of the President of Erdogan. Vladimir Zelensky Then he stated that they would stay in this country until the end of the war. However, on July 8, 2023, the President of Ukraine, who went to negotiations with Erdogan to Istanbul, reportedWhat is returning from Turkey along with the leaders of the defense of Azovstal. This news caused a negative reaction in Russia-in particular, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov He called it The incident “absolute violation of existing agreements” between Moscow, Kyiv and Ankara. July 12 Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaredthat the attitude of the Russian side towards what happened became more calm when she "found out about some circumstances."
The news of an interview with Sergei Volynsky began to spread on July 9, the day after the message about his return to Ukraine. “Verified” it was possible to establish that the source of the information served publication, published at 13:58 Moscow time, on the website of the publication “The Agency of Political News-North-West” (APN). In an anonymous note under the heading of the "garrison" Azovstal, the Americans saved? " It was said about a message that allegedly came to the editor and contained an interview with Sergey Volynsky. The message allegedly claimed that the military correspondent of the Turkish news agency Anadolu, whose editors later blocked the publication of the publication of the interview, took this commentary from the military.
Further, the author of the APN concludes: “Judging by the signature of Musap Turan, a piece of blocked interviews was transferred to us by a former Anadolu employee, who was fired two years ago for the question of possible relations with the organized crime of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Turkey. What was the reason for blocking the text is incomprehensible. Perhaps not enough patriotic answers of Volyna or his saying about the details of the surrender of Ukrainian militants to Azovstal and the withdrawal of high -ranking Americans from there. At the same time, it is interesting that on the Anadolu website there is no line on the transfer of prisoners of the Azovs to Zelensky. ”
“Verified” tried to contact the APN editors in order to find out the details of their mysterious message, but there was no answer. Did not respond to numerous requests for comments and agency Anadolu. At the same time, on his website, contrary to the statement from the article of the APN, the news of the return of the defense commanders “Azovstal” to Ukraine appeared As early as July 8.
As for a person named Musap Turan, such a journalist does not exist. Probably in the APN they had in mind the Anadolu reporter Musab Turan. In May 2021, it is true Fired After he asked two Turkish ministers at a press conference, whether their colleague, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, had a connection with the emigrated leader of the Turkish mafia, Sedat Pecker. Anadolu, being state media, Comfort Such a formulation of the issue is incorrect and not corresponding to journalistic ethics.
“Verified” contacted Turan through social networks and asked to comment on interviews allegedly taken from Volynsky. He replied that he knew nothing about such publications and is not at all engaged in journalism since he was fired. According to him, he focused on his family and does not follow foreign policy news. He spoke about the interview itself: "Probably a fake."
Now about what is said directly in an interview with Sergey Volynsky.
“I would like to engage in the preparation of replenishment. <...> I don't want to go to the front line right away ".
Firstly, in Ukraine, the returning commanders were met as heroes (they and Received This is the official rank in October last year), and they behaved appropriately. None of them publicly spoke about the transition to the rear work - on the contrary, Answering Denis Prokopenko, ex-commander of Azov, in the presence of Sergei Volynsky, said to the questions of journalists, the officers would go to the front, this is their main goal, for which they returned to Ukraine.
“My combat experience is limited to Mariupol’s defense, and since then military affairs have been greatly moved forward”.
Volynsky since 2014 Participated In hostilities in the east of Ukraine as part of the 36th separate brigade of the Marine Corps of the Armed Forces. In 2015, he rose to the senior lieutenant, in 2020-to the captain, in 2021 he became a major, and on April 13, 2022 he headed the 36th brigade. In those days when he, together with the other military, was surrounded by Azovstali, Volynsky I called To make every effort to rescue the military, however, the result of propaganda never called the result of propaganda - at least publicly.
“And, probably, almost everyone would have died there if it weren’t for the intervention of the Americans who agreed with the Russians to withdraw their high -ranking officers from the object in exchange for the surrender of the garrison”.
As according to data officials of both sides conflict, and according to the results of a very detailed Investigations CNN, negotiations on the fate of the last defenders of Azovstal were purely between Ukraine and Russia, without the intervention of third countries, including the United States. At the same time, the Russian media actively exaggerated rumors about the presence of high -ranking American officers (and even the general) in the plant, however, after the latter exit the surrounded It's clearthat all such statements are fakes.
Also, the United States did not participate in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners in September 2022. Intermediaries between Moscow and Kyiv performed Turkish President Erdogan and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad ibn Salman. At the same time, out of ten foreigners freed within the framework of the exchange, only two They were Americans: volunteers Alexander Dryuke and Andy Tai Hugun, who fell into Russian captivity not in Mariupol, but in the vicinity of Kharkov. Judging by their biographies, they were not any high -ranking officers, although they had previously served in the Marine Corps, but even before the start of a full -scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, they resigned. At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Biginen thanked Ukraine and Saudi Arabia in the issue of rescue of its compatriots, thereby making it clear that it was their efforts in this matter that became decisive. In addition, he once again urged American citizens to stay away from the war zone.
Thus, many details mentioned in the allegedly interview with Sergey Volynsky do not correspond to real facts, including a description of the episodes from his own biography. It is also very doubtful that the spread of a real sensational interview with Turkish journalists begin with a little -known Russian publication. At the same time, the informant mentioned in the message categorically refutes the participation in the transfer of information about the “blocked interview”. All this suggests that with a high degree of probability we are dealing with misinformation.
Photo on the cover: @serjvlk
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