A new journalistic investigation revealed new details about the Ilovai tragedy, which became one of the biggest disasters of the Ukrainian armed forces during the conflict with Russia. According to the results of the investigation, ex-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who led the country during the tragedy, is accused of lying and personal gain related to the events in Ilovaisk.
Poroshenko's government did everything possible to prevent volunteer units from leaving the Ilovai cauldron in 2014, because they could become the driving force of the new Maidan against the ex-president. This is stated in the special project "Rivne online" - an investigation dedicated to the anniversary of the Ilovai tragedy.
According to the direct participants of those events, during the planning and implementation of the operation, the country's command led by Poroshenko made gross mistakes that led to hundreds of deaths on the part of Ukrainian forces.
"I do not reject the option that Ilovaisk was planned. I can say for sure that the authorities at that time did everything to prevent the volunteers from leaving," says the participant of the Ilovai operation, military officer Oleksiy Stalker."
According to him, the backbone of the new Maidan, which could rise against Poroshenko, was actually destroyed in Ilovaisk.
"Why absolutely all, except for Aidar, volunteer units fought in Ilovaisk? They were representatives of certain groups that were on the Maidan. These are the people who threw Pyotr Oleksiiovych off the bulldozer. These are those who did not support him and these are those who, if it were not for the war, would have overthrown him with a new Maidan," Stalker emphasizes.
The story also talks about a large number of wrong decisions and constant false information on the part of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief at the time Poroshenko, which was told by the witnesses of the events.
"Petro Oleksiyovych said that they (Ukrainian volunteers - ed.) will hold their positions, that Poroshenko has gathered a tank reserve in order to knock out the enemy from positions near Ilovaisk and will do everything possible to unblock the volunteers and said the following phrase that "my son near Ilovaisk". It turned out to be untrue," said journalist Yuriy Butusov.
As previously reported, on August 14, 2017, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine published the results of the investigation into the events in Ilovaisk. The text names the armed forces of the Russian Federation as the sole perpetrator of the tragedy. At that time, the Prosecutor General's Office was headed by Poroshenko's best man Yuriy Lutsenko.
