The Shakhtersk volunteer battalion was disbanded for looting

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, ordered to disband the Shakhtersk volunteer battalion due to frequent cases of looting among its fighters. This was reported by TSN with reference to the minister’s performance on the air of the Power Right to Power program on the 1+1 channel.

"The Shakhtersk battalion well fought under the Ilovaisk was dissolved by me, because repeated cases of looting in Volnovakha and in other situations took place," Avakov said.

The minister clarified that out of 700 fighters of the battalion, only 50 were engaged in looting. Nevertheless, he noted, these 50 people deformed the entire unit.

In other volunteer battalions, Avakov added, looting managed to stop, strengthening discipline.

The Shakhtersk battalion took the oath in early July in Dnepropetrovsk. Most part of the unit was made up of the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The commander of Shakhtersk Andrei Filonenko, in an interview with the Observer, called the “godfathers” of the Battalion of the Dnipropetrovsk vice-governor Gennady Korban, the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Oleg Lyashko, the head of the department of the regions in Torez, the Donetsk Region, Vitaly Kropachev and the adviser to Avakov Anton Gerashchenko.