"We had information about the situation in Makiivka very quickly," said Aleksey Arestovich, the adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a conversation with Mark Feygin on YouTube.
According to Arestovich, a battalion of mobilized people was brought to Makiivka. Among them were special forces fighters, fighters of communication centers, specialists in rocket and artillery weapons, and many conventional infantry. There were over 600 of them. They were placed in the building of vocational school No. 19.
"A lot of things came up there. But the whole paradox lies in the fact that there would be much fewer victims if there were no ammunition depot in this building. It detonated. According to modest estimates - under 300 dead; according to bold estimates - more than 400. More than 200 people were injured. This about the fate of the mobilized. After all, they just arrived."
Aleksey Arestovich also said that he was very surprised by the reaction of Russian propaganda resources.
"They began to lie a lot desperately. One of the versions that I heard was that the mobilized were identified by mobile phones. There was nothing like it. They didn't have phones. This is not practiced in the Russian army. All departments are usually given 2-3 phones with local numbers of the Phoenix provider, on which they can periodically call their families. The Russian command is following this very clearly. Therefore, the tale that the number of phones identified them does not work. We have enough other forces and means of reconnaissance, which make it possible to identify the enemy in time."
