Syrskyi, Umerov honor soldiers who died in battles for Debaltseve

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Major General Anatoliy Barhylevych have commemorated at Askold's Grave in Kyiv the soldiers who died in the battles for Debaltseve in January-February 2015.

According to Ukrinform, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said this in a post on Facebook.

"I honored my fallen brothers and sisters, with whom I fought together in the Debaltseve area in the winter of 2015," Syrskyi said.

He recalled that there is a monument on Askold's Grave in Kyiv, erected in memory of Ukraine's struggle in the Debaltseve sector.

According to Syrskyi, "the battles for Debaltseve for me are not only a term from the history of our ten-year war for Independence against Russian aggression."

"In the winter of 2015, I was one of the commanders of the Anti-Terrorist Operation forces at the Debaltseve bridgehead. One of the tasks assigned to me was to coordinate the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from Debaltseve," Syrskyi added.

He thanked the military chaplains of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for their prayers for Ukrainian soldiers.

Syrskyi also visited the graves and honored the bright memory of Ukrainian soldiers - Hero of Ukraine Dmytro Kotsiubailo ("DaVinci") and Andrii Pilshchykov ("Juice") - who were buried nearby.

He said that he knew these courageous, legendary Ukrainian knights personally.

"I know for sure that we will return to Debaltseve, we will return to Vuhlehirsk, Lohvynove, Ridkodub, and eventually we will return to our Ukrainian Avdiivka and Donetsk. We will liberate all our native Ukrainian lands! We know what we are fighting for! We will win! Glory to Ukraine!" Syrskyi said.