Former DPR propaganda heroine joins Ukrainian counter intelligence
Svetlana Dryuk, the former commander of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) People’s Militia who was the archetype of the heroine in the propagandist film Opolchenochka (“Militiawoman”), has left the Donetsk territory and is now collaborating with Ukrainian counterintelligence, TSN reports.
TSN reports that recently Dryuk gave important information to the Ukrainian intelligence agency, and that counterintelligence subsequently arranged the evacuation of the “people’s heroine of Novorossiya” and her children from the territory held by pro-Russian militants.
After fleeing the DPR, Dryuk sent her former detachment fake selfies from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, when in fact she was in Ukraine, the article claims.
Svetlana Dryuk gave Ukrainian intelligence documents about the secret testing of the modified Russian T-72B3 tank in the Donetsk region and other evidence of modern military equipment being brought across the border from Russia.
The testing of the tanks was led by Russian Armed Forces Captain Yury Prilutsky. However, his tank, the “Ghost”, and another seven T-72s were destroyed by Ukrainian partisans near the city of Chystyakove (formerly Torez) which is under the control of pro-Russian militants. It was several days after this that Svetlana left the DPR, and her children we soon brought into Ukrainian government-controlled territory by counterintelligence operatives.
According to Dryuk, the pro-Russian militants in the Donbas have worked out an algorithm to deploy new divisions at the DPR People’s Militia base. Each DPR army unit has already prepared cover documents for Russian soldiers so they can masquerade as mobilized locals.
“All of the Russians on the list are local. Each regiment is divided into three units – if there are two thousand people in a regiment, six thousand Russians will come,” Dryuk explained. The militia contingent could have up to 100,000 soldiers.
Dryuk also said that she is willing to testify about her former detachment at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.