Ukrainian military command: Ukrainian soldier captured during a fight near Krymske
A soldier from the 16th Motorized Infantry Battalion (MIB) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was taken prisoner during the fighting on November 23 near Krymske in the Luhansk province, as reported by the 16th MIB on Facebook.
“In connection with the spread of distorted information on the soldiers killed in the fighting of November 23 near Krymske in the Luhansk province, we present an explanation. It was officially reported that four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the mentioned territory. It is confirmed that one fighter from the 16th MIB was killed in the uneven battle, and his body was delivered to the Ukrainian side. This was junior sergeant Denis Kryvenko. Information on the three other battalion soldiers will be reported only after their bodies have been handed over and their identities confirmed. The return of two of our soldiers was reported later. The two Ukrainian soldiers who managed to escape the fighting alive were not among the four soldiers who had been tentatively declared dead. Unfortunately, one of the battalion’s soldiers was unable to escape the battlefield, and was captured by Russian mercenaries,” the report states.
Yuri Biryukov, Advisor to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said in a comment on the Facebook post that soldiers from the 58th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made an unauthorized attack on Krymske.
“I have nothing to say about this story except dirty language,” he wrote.
According to him, the acting commander of one of the companies of the 58th brigade, “having seen the reportage on the cleanup of two settlements in the gray zone of the Svitlodarsk arch” wanted his own glory.
“And they pushed forward. The organizer himself died first. Nobody understood why they pushed forward,” Biryukov observed.
According to him, preparations are being made to do an exchange for the captured soldier.
On Thursday, November 23, five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another four were wounded in combat in the Donbas. The Krymske settlement was the hottest point of conflict, and the fighting there raged for eight hours. Four soldiers died there and another two were wounded. Separatist publications wrote that the Ukrainian soldiers were supposedly trying to move across the Bakhmutka motorway to the militants’ position.