REUTERS
The Ukrainian General Staff rules out the return of the National Guard and the Interior Ministry's battalions to the front line, press secretary of the Ukrainian General Staff Vladyslav Selezniov told Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda on Tuesday.
"The task of the Ukrainian armed forces is to deter aggression of the enemy. The National Guard and the Ministry of Interior have their own tasks, which they perform on the second and third lines of defense," he said.
"At the moment, the Ukrainian armed forces are located along the entire line of defense," Selezniov said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 10, the Donbas Battalion asked the commanders to order the return of the unit to their positions in the village of Shyrokyne near the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol, or to other positions on the front line in order to prevent tragic events like the Ilovaisk pocket or the Debaltseve battle.
The battalion's fighters claim the command insists on the redeployment of their unit outside the Donbas conflict zone in order "to protect the trenches."