The Ukrainian owl will defeat the Russian bat - commander of the special unit of the The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine "Artan" Melnyk (Photo)

The Ukrainian owl will defeat the Russian bat - commander of the special unit of the The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine "Artan" Melnyk (Photo)

Andriy Melnyk, platoon commander of the special unit of The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine"Artan , gave an exclusive interview to ASPI news.

- How did you become an officer of the special forces of the The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine?
- Yes, I am currently the platoon commander of the "Artan" detachment of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

- You have a good sports training, but before the "hot" stage you were not a soldier. Main Intelligence Directorate chose you or are you Main Intelligence Directorate?
- Although I was not a military man, I graduated from the military department, that is, I had elementary skills at a minimum level. At the beginning of the Russian invasion, I created the "Shield of Vasylkiv" detachment of the territory defence, and at that time I had to quickly learn military affairs. All necessary instructors were invited, and we all went through training together. To be honest, I had a desire to go to Main Intelligence Directorate, because there are really very high requirements for candidates. This applies to both physical and psychological training - you have to pass various tests there, there are a lot of physical exercises. I also had to pass a "polygraph", a lot of things. And only after passing these exams can you get into the Main Directorate of Intelligence.

- Was the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Major General Budanov, who personally participated in sabotage and counter-sabotage work since 2014, an example for you?
- In fact, Kyrylo Budanov is an example for all of us, because he has non-standard approaches when developing plans for all special operations and dealing with strategy. Even now, he sometimes takes a personal part in special operations, but this is not advertised. He is a real example, the fighters of the Main Intelligence Directorate look up to him.

- The logo of Main Intelligence Directorate is an owl holding a sword over the Russian Federation with its paws. Is this a symbol for you of what the Main Intelligence Directorate fighters should do?
- The motto of Russian intelligence is "higher than the stars", Ukrainian - "wisdom reigns over the stars". The symbol of Russian intelligence is a bat, the Ukrainian one is an owl (guess what it feeds on). The owl is also on our chevrons. That is why we will definitely win in the fight against the Russian Federation, piercing Russia with our sword, because the Main Intelligence Directorate has the best soldiers of Ukraine.

- "Artan" has many athletes, even several world champions.
- Yes, we have active athletes who successfully represent Ukraine in sports arenas. For example, this is Oleg Pryimachov, he became the winner of the World Muay Thai Boxing Games for the second time a few weeks ago. By the way, he was awarded the Order of Merit II degree.

- The Main Intelligence Directorate detachments are elite units of the Armed Forces. How are you different from the regular army?
- There is some difference. First, it's our weapons and equipment. All from the best samples of the NATO armies, no, for example, Kalashnikov assault rifles. We have M4, Sauer, CZ and so on. The same applies to heavy weapons, for example, mortars - all of them are made by Western manufacturers. So we have the best, plus volunteer organizations like the "Serhiy Prytula Foundation" also help, because here every fighter must have a thermal imager, a night vision device and much more. In combat, all this can be lost, fail, so volunteers can quickly help.

- When we talked some time ago, you were in the Bakhmut direction, where you had skirmishes with the Wagnerites. What is special about these "scumbags"?
- Yes, I also believe that the members of the "Wagner" PMC are the strongest fighters in Russia. With whom we dealt, they have the highest training. There are two types of "Wagnerites". The first - who were recruited from prisons, etc. They had minimal training, minimal equipment, minimal everything. And it was they who were sent first to discover our positions and firing points. No one cared about this "contingent" there, ordinary "meat". But they were followed by very second - well-prepared people. We can say that we took some things from them to our own combat arsenal of skills. These people have been constantly fighting somewhere for several years, in different parts of the world, that is, they have real combat experience. As practice has shown, we were not inferior to the most experienced "Wagnerians" and successfully performed our tasks.

- According to the official estimates of Ukraine, announced by President Zelensky, the Russians "placed" only 22,000 "Wagnerians" in Bakhmut. Did their "meat" assaults have an effect on you?
- Honestly, yes. They had a barbaric principle - until they advanced, conditionally, by a meter, they did not stop the pressure, and no one counted the killed there. That is, there were such "swings" - they occupied some building at the cost of dozens of corpses, and we returned it after a short period of time. You see, we are not ready to fight like they do - to stupidly kill so many people. We protect our people. Of course, we have losses, but they are relatively very small. This is a small percentage, taking into account dozens of complex military operations.

- When the battles for Bakhmut were the hardest, President Zelensky praised "Artan" in one of his video messages.
- Yes, the president is aware of important military operations, he knows "Artan" and our commander Victor Torkotyuk. As he praised us, it was really for what, we performed an important special operation, one might say, for the first time in the history of Ukraine.

- What was the most difficult combat task for "Artan"?
- You can't talk about it, but it was in the North of Ukraine. Ukrainians will find out about it in a while.

- Tell us how the "Artan" fighters rest after such important special operations?
- For psychological relief - pets. There are quite a lot of domestic animals at "zero" that have lost their homes or owners, we feed them dry food and give them shelter. Personally, I almost always bring a cat or a dog from a combat mission and give them to good hands, this is already a tradition for me.

- After the victory, you do not plan to connect your fate with the Armed Forces. Why?
- To be honest, I never thought that I would ever become a soldier, I wasn't really interested in it. But today I have acquired many skills and use them effectively, I even like it. But I feel that I can do more good without being a soldier. Yes, I can realize myself for the benefit of Ukraine and in military matters. But the war will be over, and I will return to civilian affairs.

- Before the beginning of the Russian invasion, you were an adviser to Mayor Vasylkiv, who is in Kyiv region. Are you planning to return?
- Will I return to Vasylkiv? Honestly, I don't plan to. Vasylkiv is a small town, a lot has been done there, a lot of effort has been invested. Although I am from Kyiv and Vasylkiv is also my hometown. But I want to develop and do something bigger, something bigger than Vasylkiv. I see myself in politics after the end of the war. I believe that there will be a demand for people who understand the problems of defenders of Ukraine. There will be tens, hundreds of thousands of military personnel who will need to find themselves in civilian life. We saw that the military, who defended the country in 2014-2015, felt that the state had allegedly turned its back on them. I think I can represent the military in politics and work in this field. This applies to the rehabilitation of the wounded, the creation of jobs, social benefits and programs, psychological assistance, and many other things.

- So, we are waiting for victory! What will be the victory of Ukraine in the war for you?
- The first, certainly, the liberation of all territories of Ukraine as of the beginning of 1991. Only after the departure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the border in 1991 can we speak of the end of the war. There should be no occupied territories in Ukraine.

- Glory to Ukraine!
- Glory to heroes!