MELITOPOL, January 13. /TASS/. Serb volunteers have joined a battalion named after Pavel Sudoplatov, which is being formed in the Zaporozhye Region, the region’s acting governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on Friday.
"The Pavel Sudoplatov battalion has incorporated volunteers from fraternal Serbia, who arrived in the Zaporozhye Region to protect our borders," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Balitsky said that in their home country, the volunteers served in the military police and are masters of martial arts.
"The guys from Belgrade are real patriots. Our brothers in arms have arrived in the Zaporozhye Region, although Serbia’s laws prohibit its citizens from participating in the special military operation. Today, they lined up shoulder to shoulder with our guys for the first time, proving in earnest their commitment to Russia and their readiness to fight against Nazism," he said.
At the end of December, Balitsky said that the Pavel Sudoplatov battalion was already performing a certain number of tasks in the rear, but had not yet been sent to the frontline. In September, he signed a decree on the creation of three volunteer battalions in the Zaporozhye Region: the Sudoplatov battalion, the St. Andrew the First-Called battalion, and the Slavic Guard battalion.