Donbas defence taken over by elite officers with radical pasts (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,646)
The appointment of Biletskyi and Prokopenko to lead more than 100,000 troops could decide whether eastern cities like Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Dobropillia hold—or fall—under intensifying Russian assaults and long‑range missile strikes.
Russia wanted to destroy Azov, but its founders have never been as powerful and influential as they are now. “It is ironic that Russia invaded Ukraine to demilitarise it and destroy Azov, which had fewer than two thousand members at the time. Today, Azov’s founder and its current commander were entrusted with commanding two groupings that together have more than 100,000 men. What a Russian failure!” Finnish analyst Joni Askola wrote on Wednesday .
“Sloviansk and Kramatorsk will be defended by convinced Nazis,” Russian propagandist Alexander Kots claimed .
Both quotes were reactions to these two sentences by the Ukrainian president on Wednesday: “We are also enhancing the effectiveness of the defense of the Donetsk region. Two groupings will be established, to be commanded by Andrii Biletskyi and Denys Prokopenko.”
A security meeting on the frontline situation and defensive operations in key sectors. The meeting was attended by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykhailo Drapatyi, Commander of the Airborne Forces Oleh Apostol, Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces Robert… pic.twitter.com/UGmzoujr66
Both Askola’s and Kots’s comments suggest that this is not merely a military decision. It is also a move with political implications. Biletskyi and Prokopenko are elite soldiers who both came out of an ultra-right, extremist milieu, and Biletskyi was one of its leading figures before the war.
At the same time, both have become legends, both deservedly received the title Hero of Ukraine, and in both cases the fact that they will be responsible for defending what is left of Donbas has been received very positively.
Biletskyi was a well-known right-wing radical even before 2014. He founded Right Sector and the Azov volunteer unit at that time. Among other things, he made a significant contribution to the liberation of Mariupol. He later entered politics and became an MP with marginal influence.
Roman Pataj is Head of the Opinion section at Denník N and, since 2022, the author of the Ukrainian Battlefield update. He graduated in political science and has worked as a journalist since 2002.
