Belarusian AFU Trooper Aliaksandr Mauchanau: Insane Lukashenka Sold Himself Out To Putin

Unseating the Russian puppet is beneficial to Ukraine.

Aliaksandr Mauchanau is the hero of the 2010 square. During the Belarusian uprising, he tore the red-green flag from the KGB building and installed a white-red-white one. He was later sentenced by the Lukashenka regime to three years of imprisonment. Released in September 2011. In 2014, Aliaksandr Mauchanau came to Ukraine, and when the war began in the east of the country, he joined the volunteer battalion. In 2016, the Belarusian man signed a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In an interview with Charter97.org, Aliaksandr Mauchanau says that he was prompted by a heightened sense of justice when he came to defend Ukraine:

— I watched how Russia violates not only international law, and justice, but simply any common sense with its aggressive actions.

— How is Russia's war against Ukraine different after February 24, 2022?

— The war after February 24, 2022, is distinguished firstly by its scale. We are seeing the next phase of the war launched by Russia in 2014 when it annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas.

Then the Russians masked their aggression under the action of the locals, badly pretending that they were, as it were, on the sidelines. In eight years, the Kremlin realized that such methods would definitely not be able to achieve the implementation of their aggressive wishes not limited to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the seizure of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Obviously, Putin sees himself as a great conqueror and dreams of including in the Russian Federation all the southeastern regions of Ukraine. In 2014, he called it the 'Novorossia' (New Russia - ed.), and the Kremlin probably wanted to establish a puppet government in the remaining territory, formally independent, but making all important decisions on instructions from Moscow.

It was necessary for Russians to throw out masks and decide on the open and full-scale invasion in order to try to achieve these goals. Now the Russians are no longer disguised as 'outraged miners of Donbas', acting without restraint on a scale, territory or in the use of weapons and military equipment.

Aliaksandr Mauchanau's YouTube channel

— What decisive superiorities of the Ukrainian army would you indicate?

— The main feature of the Ukrainian army is its high motivation. Ukrainians know that they are on the fair side, because they are defending their land, their homes, and their country. Russians are simply poisoned by many years of propaganda. Initially, it motivated them, but faced with reality, they were surprised.

They were told that even valid state institutions did not exist in Ukraine, and the population here was 'terrorized by gangs of some cruel fascists', the country allegedly had terrible poverty and corruption. And that most of the society will greet the Russian liberators with flowers, hoping that the 'order will finally come here'. They were fed enough with this information dirt for many years and Russian citizens believed in this delusion.

Also, Russian propaganda devotes a lot of time and money to tell stories about the greatness of the Russian army. All Russian media shows it as a ‘great force that is feared all over the world' and supposedly there is no country that could resist it. In the view of most Russians, their army can easily defeat the US Armed Forces along with all NATO allies, while the Ukrainian armed forces, in the view of Russian propaganda, are created solely to fight their own dissenting population and are completely unprepared for war with a strong enemy.

I think that not only ordinary Russians but also their leadership, believed in these fairy tales when they made the decision to outbreak a full-scale invasion.

Russian soldiers began to realize that everything here is not the way their liars had been telling them for years when their tanks crossed the Ukrainian border: they saw that no one was happy because of them, they were not greeted with flowers, but they were shot from every window.

Their propaganda told a lot about unique Russian weapons: planes, tanks, artillery, and fleet. However, in reality, everything is not so: the Ukrainian army is not retreating, and weapons are not being laid down. The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet is sunk, their aircraft and helicopters are falling, tanks are burning, and soldiers are dying. All their vaunted 'iskanders', 'calibres', 'daggers', 'bastions' and other publicized weapons, although they have been in full use for four and a half months, have not brought victory closer.

Everything they had been told for years turned out to be a lie in practice. I think that the Russian military is aware of this and it does not add motivation to them.

— How often does the Armed Forces of Ukraine use Western weapons?

— Ukrainian fighters are well equipped. You will not surprise anyone here with certain samples of Western weapons. Javelins, NLAWs, some types of hand grenade launchers or small arms are quite common. Still, this is not a weapon that can fundamentally change the course of the war. We need Western heavy artillery, it has already shown itself well at the frontlines, but so far there is not enough of it. The use of HIMARS systems has already significantly changed the balance of power, destroying many Russian weapons depots, now artillery is used much less often, although only a few types of such MLRS have been transferred and they have recently become so widely used.

We need modern air defence, artillery, tanks and aviation. If the Western countries provide us sufficiently with these weapons, then we will be able to quickly defeat the Russian troops and liberate our occupied territories.

— What can you tell about the tactics of the Russian army? Is this the modern way of warfare?

— In the first days of a full-scale invasion, the Russian command was counting on being able to defeat the Armed Forces of Ukraine within a few days and take control of most of the major cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv. They tried to capture Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Mykolaiv explicitly, but they did not succeed, they suffered losses and were forced to retreat.

In the early days, they tried to capture Kyiv, but they realized that they didn’t have enough force to do this, then they changed tactics and tried to encircle, but these attempts by the Russians were also unsuccessful. In the north of Ukraine, they suffered huge losses, while due to the actions of the Ukrainian army they could not even fully manage their invasion forces in this direction. Over time, the Russian leadership realized that there was nothing for them here, tempered their appetites and decided to withdraw the remnants of their beaten troops and focus on seizing the territories of Donbas, as well as holding the occupied territories in southern Ukraine.

Now they are trying to mass their forces on small sections of the eastern front and advance where it is possible. Thus, the offensive potential of the Russian army has practically dried up even for such actions.

— There were even reports that in the first days of the war, barrage detachments of the Kadyrovites followers were used, they did not allow Russian soldiers to flee. Is it true?

— I heard about the retreat-blocking detachment for Russians gathered from the Kadyrovites, but how much these stories correspond to reality, I don’t know. The Russian invasion forces are a motley group: these are various landing units, marines, mechanized brigades, various special forces, the police and the Russian Guard, the FSB, and also militants of the so-called LDPR are used as 'cannon fodder'.

There are also the Kadyrovites among them. I have not heard anything about them as serious fighters, especially since they are not too numerous. It is said that they are not very eager to fight, but they stand out because they like to shoot staged videos and post them on social networks, thanks to which they gained fame.

— How would you describe the average portrait of a Russian occupier?

— This is a man from the outback, who has seen little and knows little, so he joined the Russian army, hoping to realize himself there.

— There are photos from the village of Moshchun on your social media page. Could you please tell us what you see in the liberated settlements of the Kyiv region? How does this describe the behaviour of the occupiers, do they adhere to the laws of war?

— The scale of looting by the Russian military in the liberated settlements impressed me. They took out not only expensive things, electronics, but also simple household items. Local residents who survived the occupation say that the Russians could beat anyone right on the street for no reason, there were a lot of cases when Russian soldiers simply shot or kidnapped people.

Everyone who survived the occupation remembers it as one of the most difficult and terrible periods of life.

— There is information that Lukashenka's special forces were noticed among the invaders in the north of Ukraine. What can you say about this?

— I also heard that special forces of the Lukashenka regime were seen in the Chernihiv region. But I have not seen convincing evidence of this. Yes, they could be, but there is no evidence for this.

— Do you see the risk of a second attack from the territory of Belarus?

— Much is currently being said about the possibility of an invasion of Ukraine by Belarusian troops. I am not afraid of this, because the Ukrainian army will easily repel such an attack, there are enough forces and means for this. Belarusian generals should understand this. It is unlikely that they will dare to attack, although they can strike with artillery, missiles and aircraft, actions of subversion and reconnaissance groups are possible.

— Ukrainian diplomat Roman Bessmertny recently stated that it is necessary to create a Belarusian army in Ukraine and deploy it in the Chernihiv region. How do you feel about such an initiative?

— I believe that Ukraine should support the struggle of the Belarusian people against the Lukashenka regime as much as possible. Unseating the pro-Russian puppet is beneficial to Ukraine.

Various Ukrainian politicians tried to please Lukashenka and do business with him. They had got their fun but Russian troops entered from Belarusian territory and created a serious threat to Kyiv. The Russians fled back, but missile attacks from Belarusian territory did not stop. You should not try to negotiate with an old inadequate dictator like Lukashenka. Moreover, he has lost all independence in foreign policy and sold himself out to Putin. A free Belarus is the best guarantee of the security of Ukraine's northern borders.

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