Yevpatorian Oleksandr Boltyan (call sign “Chumak”) defends Ukraine as part of the “Kyiv” special purpose regiment of the National Police of Ukraine. He is currently carrying out combat missions in Donetsk region, but is also ready to liberate his native Crimea, Boltyan said. How and why the Crimean man ended up at the front, we tell in materials of the Radio Liberty Crimea.Realii project.
Crimea. Realii continue the series materials about Crimeans, who defend Ukraine with guns in hand during a full-scale Russian invasion. We believe it is important to tell these stories, which disprove Russian propaganda claims that all Crimeans support Russia. These examples also demonstrate that residents of different regions of the country, including those from the occupied territories, stand up for the defense of Ukraine during Russian military aggression.
“The motivation is simple – I want to go home”
Before the Russian annexation of Crimea Oleksandr Boltyan headed first the Sevastopol, and later the Crimean organization of VO “Svoboda”. After the peninsula was annexed, the Crimean and his family left it. He was engaged in public and political activities, for a certain time he was a member of the coordination committee of public organizations of forcibly displaced persons under the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
In 2015, he volunteered to defend Ukraine in the Donbass as part of the special purpose battalion “Sich”.
Having visited the war zone, Oleksandr Boltyan in an interview with Krym.Realii noted that “if we do not defend our country, the enemy will be near Kyiv, and maybe even further.” At that time, few people believed in such a development.
Currently, the Crimean is serving in the special purpose battalion of the National Police of Ukraine.
“My personal motivation to defend Ukraine is very simple – I want to go home, for eight years now,” says Oleksandr Boltyan.
“Now everything is serious at the front, the stakes have increased”
On the morning of February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Oleksandr Boltyan met at a combat post near occupied Donetsk.
At four o’clock in the morning on February 24, I was informed by official communication that Russia had launched a full-scale invasion
“At four o’clock in the morning on February 24, I was informed by official communication that Russia had launched a full-scale invasion. I informed the brothers and we started our tasks. We were ready for the invasion, we were waiting for it as early as February 22, since it is known that Putin (the president of Russia – ed.) is very attached to the date of February 24, by the way, it is also a symbolic date, because it is exactly half a year until August 24, the Independence Day of Ukraine. That is, after all, in the Kremlin, planning their aggression, they got attached to the date,” he told Krym.Realia.
The regiment in which the Crimean serves is located near Donetsk, helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine and local residents who have not left this territory.
Russia’s military actions against Ukraine in 2015 and now, according to Oleksandr Boltyan, are radically different.
Nowadays, everything is serious at the front, the stakes have increased
“Currently, everything is serious at the front, the stakes have increased. In 2015, fewer people left the frontline territories and the enemy was softer, so to speak, in relation to the civil infrastructure of our territories. Nowadays, they simply destroy cities and villages. From the Russian army, everything arrives: from “Point U” to “Grads” and other weapons. Currently, the occupiers “work” according to the principle: not their territories – no harm,” he says.
A Crimean citizen shared with Krym.Realiya his own photo against the background of a residential building destroyed by Russian shells in Donetsk region.
Oleksandr Boltyan’s personal photo archive contains a photo of a fire in occupied Donetsk. The Armed Forces claim that this is how they destroy warehouses with ammunition of the Russian army. According to the statements of the command of the Ukrainian army, such actions are a counteroffensive strategy for the liberation of the occupied territories of Ukraine.
“The Russian bear needs to have its teeth and claws pulled out”
Oleksandr Boltyan hopes that thanks to the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it will be possible to liberate his native Crimea as well.
Until February 24, I did not really hope that it would be possible to return Crimea. But since February 24, everything has changed a lot
“Until February 24, I did not really hope that it would be possible to return Crimea. But since February 24, everything has changed a lot: both on the international front and on the domestic front. Now we have no choice. And the question is not even that we are them (the Russian army – ed.), or they are us. The question is whether we have them now (we will win – ed.), or we them a little later,” he says.
Oleksandr Boltyan suggests that military actions may reach the Crimean peninsula.
In 2015, he told Krym.Realia that there would be no need to fight for Crimea, because “as soon as the criminal oligarchic regime in Russia falls, the occupiers will leave themselves.” Now he looks at the situation differently and says that he is ready to win back his native land.
“Everything will depend on the internal political situation in Russia and whether Putin will stay in power until the moment of the liberation of Crimea comes. In any case, the war will reach Crimea, and Crimeans will feel it to one degree or another. If Putin’s regime collapses, everything will begin to develop according to a certain scenario, and if not, then Crimea will have to be liberated by military means. Therefore, I want to say to the Crimeans who remain on the peninsula: wait for us, we will come soon. For some, this will be good news, for others – not so much,” he says.
The Crimean considers Ukraine’s victory in a full-scale war with Russia to be the return of all occupied territories under Kyiv’s control and the deprivation of Russia’s status as a nuclear power, “so that it stops waving its nuclear stick and threatening the whole world.”
If this full-scale war has begun, the Russian bear needs to pull out its teeth and claws
“If this full-scale war has started, the Russian bear needs to pull out its teeth and claws. It is necessary to wipe out the Russian army so that it does not have the opportunity to attack our country again in the coming decades. It is important for Russians to realize that their children and grandchildren will pay for what they are doing now in Ukraine, because now Russia is actually destroying the future of its generations,” Oleksandr Boltyan believes.
The Russian authorities, in turn, deny that international pressure and losses on the military front can affect the situation in this country. They claim that a “special military operation” (this is how Russia calls its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – ed.) will continue “until all its tasks are completed.”
