Symbolic of Ukraine's descent into a second 'Maidan' of violent assaults and fascistic anti-Russian fervour, born of desperation, Vladimir Zelensky has appointed the notorious General Mikhailo Drapatiye as his new defence minister. Depending on which side you stand, his notoriety was either as a hero or a villain, though his tank-driving skills might classify him as a danger to both. As an unknown member of Ukraine's military command outside the country, that fact would be meaningless out of context, but the context makes it a concerning development; as explained in the SBS report below. Drapatiye was in command of the AFU brigade which launched a violent assault on the 'separatists' who had taken control of Mariupol's police station in March 2014, following Crimea's referendum and reunion with the Russian Federation. Mariupol was a strongly 'pro-Russian' city and fears it would follow Crimea's example led to the assault. While there was an ongoing fight for control in the city, the AFU chose May 9th - 'Victory Day' - to launch its attack to try to seize back control, combining it with an attack on the people celebrating the event. As it was, Vladimir Putin was not far away, visiting the newly Russian Crimean peninsula to great fanfare. These events were well described at the time by the Guardian, which still had reporters in 'pro-Russian' territory. ('Well-described' in this case only means reporting opposing points of view - something notably absent following Russia's February 2022 intervention, and certainly absent from the report below from SBS news.) In fact the misreporting from Nick Wells in this report is the main reason for posting it. According to Wells - who only repeats the standard NATO-approved narrative - "it was a daring operation to rescue a group of police officers, besieged by Russian separatists" -
It was actually an attempt to seize back control of the police station and its weapons store from the local militia - including some sympathetic police - and then expand control until the key city was captured, but failed thanks to huge opposition from the residents. A report from an ITV crew in the city at the time gives a good idea of the local feeling, and visceral opposition to the US-backed fascistic government in Kiev. There had already been violent confrontations there, including with members of the neo-Nazi Azov brigade, who were later to take control of the city when the AFU moved back in in June. The context of that invasion, (which I've written about in detail before) and control of Mariupol for eight years until local militias and Chechen fighters liberated the city in May 2022, is hinted at in the SBS report; the seizure in 2014 was part of Kiev's "Anti-Terror Operation" or 'ATO', which the coup leaders launched soon after the Maidan take over on February 17-22 2014. Those leaders talked shamelessly of an armed purge of Donbas, to drive out or kill all the Russian speakers. Along with a ban on Russian TV, Russian literature and art and the teaching of Russian history, Kiev intended to force residents to 'become Ukrainian'. The views of the Kiev junta at the time is portrayed in this reference to the Internal Affairs Minister, Arsen Avakov, who said that - the 'counterattack' (storming of police HQ) resulted in the deaths of twenty separatists, and the capture of four, while the rest dispersed.[15][32] He referred to the separatist militants as "terrorists", and warned that "annihilation" would be Ukraine's answer to future acts of terrorism.[32] Wikipedia also tells us that: - Avakov's account of what happened was contested by some Mariupol residents, who spoke to reporters from The New York Times, the BBC, and The Independent shortly after the incident.[10][31][32] The residents (many of whom showed their Ukrainian passports to prove they were not from Russia[32]) said that the government had attacked local police who were sympathetic to protesters.[10][31][32] One version of events, put forward by a group of residents cited by The New York Times, was that the clash was sparked by Mariupol police rebelling against a new police chief sent by the interim government in Kyiv.[10] The BBC report included a video showing pro-Russian activists (my italics) trying unsuccessfully to stop armoured vehicles from moving into the city.[31] What was more, for Mariupol residents, the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Ukrainian army brought thoughts of what had happened in Odessa just a week earlier, when a violent mob of Ukrainian nationalists had set fire to the Trade Union building housing Odessa's 'resistance', burning over fifty people to death by preventing them escaping, including shooting at some who jumped from windows. Odessa like Mariupol was a cosmopolitan and generally pro-Russian city, but closer to Kiev and soon falling under its grip. None of this 'counter-narrative' on Ukraine - the fascist neo-Nazi nature of the Ukrainian government and military, or the legitimacy of the Donbas 'Separatists' and their resistance to Kiev - is given an airing in Western corporate media, nor has been for the whole of twelve years since the US-backed coup that launched the war on Russia in Ukraine. An endless supply of think tanks and pro-Ukraine disinformation, along with the voice of the Ukrainian diaspora, has ensured there is no understanding of the realities of NATO's war on Russia. As for the new defence minister Mikhail Drapatiye, his association with Nationalist and neo Nazi groups now absorbed into the Ukrainian armed forces is long-standing and inevitable, as noted in a Google AI search result: "As a high-ranking field commander, joint forces leader, and recently appointed head of the military, Drapatyi coordinates closely with various elite Ukrainian units on critical front lines. Official military briefings and strategy meetings place him alongside Azov Brigade commander Denys Prokopenko and 3rd Army Corps/Azov movement founder Andrii Biletskyi, reflecting professional military cooperation under the unified command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine rather than any structural or political affiliation with the Azov movement." Drapatiye's appointment won't alter prospects for Kiev however, as is clear from Russia's latest devastating ballistic missile strike on the very equipment Kiev is counting on to improve its fortunes. The Kremlin got wind of this important defence industry meeting, with devastating results, ones that Kiev was unable to conceal: A Russian missile attack killed ten people and wounded over 100 at a Ukrainian defence industry event in the Kyiv region on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The targeting of government, military and defence industry leaders provoked criticism of the event and the security implications. “An investigation will establish who made the decision to hold the event… and whether the risks were properly assessed under martial law,” prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko said as he announced a criminal inquiry. Al Jazeera's correspondent Audrey Macalpine, who was on the scene shortly afterwards, said that many drone systems were on display, including foreign ones, along with electronic jamming and monitoring equipment. All of these were intended to be used in strikes on Russian territory, such as those described in the rest of the report.
DM 25th July 2026