Chief of staff of the 20th Motorized Infantry Battalion, Colonel Viktor Pokusa, whose sensational letter to the leadership of Ukraine has been published in Den on March 12, 2015, has been transferred to the reserve. “Yesterday I received an order to leave the military service. They are supposed to demobilize me before April 12,” he said in a phone conversation with Den’s reporter.
Colonel Pokusa has served in the Ukrainian army for 22 years, was part in the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the war broke out in the Donbas, the veteran officer, according to him, decided not to stay on the sidelines and volunteered to serve in the 20th Battalion of Territorial Defense. The soldiers of his battalion, which took part in liberation of the population centers of the Donbas, continue to serve in Avdiivka. During his service in the ATO area Pokusa not only experienced a lot, but also tried to analyze the reasons of bitter failures of the Ukrainian army. He is sure that the Armed Forces of Ukraine, now experienced in combats, are able to fulfill any task and wipe the enemy out of the Donbas. A result of his contemplations was an open letter to the president, prime minister, and the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, as well as to politicians and military experts.
After reading his sensational letter the Council of National Security Reforms and the Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Research held on March 19 at Ukrinform the roundtable “Urgent Measures to Increase Ukraine’s Defense Capability at a Time of Russian Aggression.” (Read about its results in our article “Letter from the front: first result" on page 4.) In spite of the invitation, the author of the letter could not turn up at the event. “The official reason is the situation in the front. I am a military man, I cannot leave the unit unless there is an order from my commander,” the chief of staff explained.
When asked what the reaction of the official commandment to the publication of the letter in the Kyiv press was, Pokusa said, “There was no reaction. They kept silent, pretended nothing had happened.” I have received a few calls from the regular officers who asked about my vision of the future. “Formally I am supposed to leave the service when a year period ends,” the colonel explained, “They could have offered something, but they haven’t.” Thus in the following days the question will be solved. It turns out that the Ukrainian army does not need the experienced and checked officers. At the same time, the president states, “You should change the tactics of appointing commanders – you will take a higher position after showing yourself in a battle. Only the commanders who were tested by combat deserve to be commanders,” the press service quotes the head of state as saying. What is happening in reality?
Now Colonel Pokusa says that he is planning to get involved in sociopolitical activity. However, he does not know yet which kind of activity it will be. He says that many soldiers of the 20th Motorized Infantry Battalion and many other units that are stationed in the front read the “Letter from the Frontline” in the newspaper. “The servicemen said I had written everything correctly,” Pokusa said. The colonel accepted the invitation of the newspaper to become the guest of Den and promised that in the near future he and his comrades-in-arms would come to Kyiv and meet with Den’s journalists.
