Crimean filmmaker Oleg Sentsov heads the battalion

Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and former political prisoner of the Kremlin, became a battalion commander and continues to defend Ukraine. He called for more action to end the war.

This was reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Ukrainian film director and screenwriter Oleg Sentsov, who was a political prisoner of the Kremlin in 2014-2019 and has been defending Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, is now the head of a battalion.

As the filmmaker stated at the annual YES conference "How to End the War" held on September 12-13 in Kyiv and organized by the Pinchuk Foundation, the war will not end tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and probably not this year.

At the beginning of the war, Sentsov defended Kyiv as part of the territorial defense, and in the summer of 2023, he was promoted to officer and became the commander of an assault company of the 47th Brigade. He was wounded several times during the fighting.

During the conference, he called for less talk about how the war will end and more action to end it.

Sentsov noted that the war has changed significantly since 2022.

"We used to run around Bakhmut with full-length assault rifles - now the infantry is surviving, hiding in holes and waiting to be hit by an FPV drone. The enemy also acts in small groups, without large-scale mechanized attacks," he explained.

According to him, if you inflict maximum damage on the enemy, there will come a time when the front will stop and the Russians will no longer be able to advance. Now they are moving more slowly, and eventually they will be stopped, after which Putin will think about his actions.

The director added that it is important to continue to put pressure on Russia politically and economically. The second stage of the end of the war will come when the government in Russia changes, they recognize their mistake and return the Ukrainian territories - it will be a real victory.

Last year, during the premiere of his movie "Real" in Karlovy Vary, Oleg Sentsov said that Ukraine needs to prepare for a 10-year war. He emphasized that the war with Russia is serious and long, so everyone needs to be actively involved in the defense of the country.

Sentsov noted that all men will serve, and that demobilization, rotations and the country's transition to a military-style of operation are needed. He called for resources to be invested in defense and production, not in new asphalt and stadiums, as this can wait.

Анна Бальчінос