"Asker" Crimean Tatar battalion will become a unit within marines of Ukrainian Navy, there is currently such agreement with Stepan Poltorak, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine. This was reported by Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and People’s Deputy from Petro Poroshenko Bloc, during international forum discussing "Crimea under occupation: Consequences for Ukraine and the world" broadcast by 112 Ukraine TV channel.
"There is an agreement in principle with Minister of Defence Poltorak that this will be a unit within the Marines. This is not exactly what we wanted, but it is also fine to start with. It’s hard to say how many fighters there will be, about 250 people have already enlisted. I think many people will join after this battalion is legitimized. By this I do not only mean ethnic Crimean Tatars," Dzhemilev announced.
He also informed about the pressure on Crimean residents from occupation authorities demanding to join Russian army.
As it was reported earlier, the incident between Ukrainian military officers and Crimean Tatar’s NGO ‘Asker’ occurred in Chongar city of Kherson region.
