MELITOPOL, January 24. /TASS/. Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia civil society group, on Tuesday said that servicemen from the 102nd brigade of the Ukrainian territorial defense are refusing to take their positions on the engagement line near Gulyaypole in the Zaporozhye Region.

"A mass refusal by soldiers of the 102nd brigade of the Ukrainian territorial defense from Ivano-Frankovsk to obey orders to go to their positions near Gulyaypole is taking place," he said on Komsomolskaya Pravda radio.

The refusals started on Monday, and the firing positions in question are yet to be set up, he added.

According to Rogov, the brigade used to be the second line of defense, while the first line was defended by mobilized residents from Ukraine-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye Region.

"They said let the Zaporozhye people do it, let them die there, why should we do it. We are holding the second line, controlling it. The brigade is named after Hauptmann Dmytro Vitovsky," he said.

Earlier, Rogov told TASS that at least a few dozen troops of Ukraine’s territorial defense had defected to Russia since mid-December, when the amount of these defections began to rise.