РНБОУ National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine

Oleksandr Turchynov: Volunteer battalions formed the ideology of building a strong patriotic independent country that is able to defend itself

Volunteer battalions, which together with the battalions of the National Guard of Ukraine and the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were the first to accept the fight, not only having stopped the enemy, but having rejected him for hundreds of kilometers back, formed the ideology of building a strong patriotic independent country. This was stated by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov during his speech at the presentation of the book «Volunteer battalions. The story of the battalions' feat that saved the country», which took place in Kyiv today.

Mr. Turchynov emphasized that thanks to the volunteers, the country had won the time «to create a real army, a combat-capable National Guard, an effective military-industrial complex, to get real weapons». «Thanks to you - those who first went and enshielded their country - we have proved that Ukraine was, is and will be, that Ukraine can defend itself even when our partners did not give us a single cartridge", - Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine said.

According to Oleksandr Turchynov, in 2014, "we started with volunteer battalions, and now have the national volunteer army, the volunteer National Guard and other volunteer security units".

"Volunteer battalions formed the ideology of building a strong patriotic independent country that is able to defend itself, able to win", - Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine summarized.