R ussia’s Vladimir Putin government on Wednesday released “classified documents” that, as per its claims, were seized from the command office of National Guard of Ukraine and which, it further claimed, showed that the Ukrainian government under Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy leadership was planning a major offensive action in the Donbas region this month. The two separate “countries” of Donetsk and Luhansk, that are ruled by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine, comprise the area known as the Donbas. The National Guard of Ukraine is a part of the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. In the briefing by spokesperson of Russian Ministry of Defence, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian government released the original “classified” documents of the commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Colonel-General Nikolai Balan, dated 22 January 2022 that contained the plan for preparing one of the shock groups for offensive operations in the so-called “Joint Forces Operation” zone in Donbas. These documents, Konashenkov claimed, were recovered during a special military operation. He stated that the recovery of these documents proved that the Zelenskyy government was lying that it had no plans for an armed seizure of Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics. The document, the Russians claimed, stated: “On organizing the training of a battalion tactical group of the 4th operational brigade to perform combat (special) tasks in the joint forces’ operation as part of a brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine,” and was addressed to the heads of the northern Kyiv, southern Odessa and western territorial departments of the National Guard of Ukraine. The document, the spokesperson further claimed, approves the organizational structure of the battaliontactical group of the 4th operational brigade of the National Guard and reassignment to the 80th separate air assault brigade of Ukraine. “I would like to emphasise that since 2016, this formation of the air assault troops of Ukraine has been trained by American and British instructors under the ‘NATO standard’ training programs in Lvov. In accordance with the order, the Deputy Commander of the National Guard was tasked with organizing joint combat training of the battalion-tactical group of the National Guard as part of the 80th separate air assault brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine from 7 February to 28 February 2022. I draw your attention that as many as five paragraphs of 4th paragraph are devoted to the issues of careful selection of personnel, psychologists’ examination and ensuring their high motivation. For this reason, the National Guard servicemen are provided with visual agitation, information and propaganda materials, flags, and printing products,” the spokesperson said.
According to him, all events of joint combat training of the nationalists were ordered to be completed by 28 February in order to further ensure the fulfilment of combat missions as part of the Ukrainian “Joint Forces Operation” in Donbas. The document, as per the spokesperson’s claims, contains the original signatures of the officials of the command of the National Guard of Ukraine responsible for the tasks. There was no response from the Ukrainian government on these documents-based claims made by the Russian. The two countries, apart from fighting on the ground, are engaged in significant information warfare on multiple virtual platforms, with each trying to damage the credibility of the opposite leader by using the media and social media as a tool.