Commander Kupol says The Washington Post "interpreted his thoughts in their way"

In a post on Facebook, Anatolii Kozel wrote that he was "amazed at how wrong everything was" and that the journalists had published only part of his words.

"I believe this is simply out of ignorance and not a deliberate tearing up of my story," Kupol noted. 

Isabelle Khurshudyan, the editor-in-chief of The Washington Post's Ukrainian bureau, told Svidomi that Kupol had agreed to talk to them knowing he was in trouble. 

"I spoke to him several times after the article was published, and The [Washington] Post published a second article about his removal from office. He never made any of the claims described in his Facebook post," Khurshudyan said. The interview was recorded and at no point in the story was he misquoted.

On 13 March, The Washington Post published an article stating that Ukraine lacks qualified troops and ammunition and that casualties and pessimism are on the rise. 

The battalion commander of the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade, Anatolii 'Kupol' Kozel, was one of the interlocutors of the publication and said that inexperienced soldiers were sent to his battalion and not given time to train them. As a result, the battalion suffered heavy losses.

After that, Kupol reported pressure from the command and a demotion because of the interview. In this regard, the soldier wrote a letter of resignation.