This is an elite battalion
The new general military mobilization in Ukraine was one of the points of friction between President Zelenskyy and former Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Zalozhny, and remains a problem for Kiev. As the conflict approaches its second anniversary, and after a failed counterattack, soldiers have begun to become scarce in their ranks, but there are already special units of the Ukrainian army recruiting new agents, as reported by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Reuters.
A year after the founder of the Da Vinci Wolf Battalion was killed on the front line, the elite battalion of the Ukrainian army established a new recruitment center to compensate for the losses caused by the Moscow fleet.
In one Kiev office, the wall is decorated with a photo of Da Vinci Wolves founder, Dmytro “Da Vinci” Kotsiubilo, who was killed in Bakhmut in March last year, a martyr who has become Kiev's new advertising image to attract new members.
“We are mainly looking for people who want to fight, who want to join our unit and who understand where they come from,” explains the new unit commander, Serhiy Filimonov.
Serhiy Filimonov was recently officially introduced as the leader of the Da Vinci Wolves (Getty)
The Wolf Battalion, led by Da Vinci, justifies that it wants to prove to Ukrainians eligible for conscription that they are able to choose where and with whom they want to serve on the battlefield.
Given the alarming shortage of activists on the ground, the Ukrainian Parliament is studying the possibility of drafting a law that would reduce the age of compulsory conscription from 27 to 25 years.
As for the founder of Da Vinci Wolves, Kotsiubaylo's fame began to accumulate in 2014 as a member of a nationalist unit that fought Russian forces during the invasion of Crimea. In 2021, he was honored as a Hero of Ukraine by Zelensky, who was also present at his funeral. Now it is being used as a model and inspiration for young Ukrainians to enlist in the armed forces and fight the Russians.
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