In a video conference on Sunday, Azov Batallion reconnaissance officer Illya Samoylenko warned Ukraine can suffer a setback on the front-lines if officials fail to learn a lesson from frontline failures at Kherson, Berdyansk, and Melitopol.

He also sounded bitter about Mariupol siege arguing Kyiv provided  ‘zero backing’ with the city defenders etting no ‘air, land, and artillery backing’ at all.

While Azov Batallion saw the aggression coming, the pre-war campaign to get Mariupol ready for a Russian attack faced ‘sabotage from officials, bureaucrats, and government’.

At least 25 thousand Mariupol residents died in the Russian onslaught.

Illya Samoylenko pointed to bitter lessons that cost Ukraine loss of  Kherson, Berdyansk, and Melitopol adding that our commander-in-chief (Zelensky) can’t make those mistakes again, which will be the ‘biggest support’ for Mariupol defenders.

Getting out of the besieged stellworks site is hardly possible, admitted the Azov Batallion senior, stressing the Ukrainian soldiers will refuse to surrender as they know that Russians fail to keep their word and flout the warfare norms.