In Moscow, the Armenian Apostolic Church "blessed" the Armenian battalion "Arbat" for the war against Ukraine. He will be sent to Donbas. The basis will probably be "Artsakh" (Karabakh) militants.
At the ceremony on July 1, a criminal authority from the occupied Horlivka, Armen Sarkisyan (in a black T-shirt), who is wanted by Ukraine as one of the organizers of the murders during the Revolution of Dignity, was spotted. He managed the "titsushkas", and his group was involved in the murder of journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy, writes "Dzerkalo Tyzhnya".
According to Ukrainian intelligence, as of February 24, 2022, Sarkisian-Horlivskyi became a "watcher" of prisons both in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation itself.
However, the main task of the "post" was the creation of a new "private military company," which was to be sponsored by the pro-Kremlin Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who was also present at the "blessing".
Karapetyan owns Tashir Holding, a company related to Gazprom, which also includes Electric Networks of Armenia.
Armen Sarkisian-Horlovskyi was also close to the family of fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych and related to another criminal authority Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Yura Yenakiivskyi). Since 2014, Sarkisian has been on the international wanted list at the request of Ukraine and was even detained in France in 2018, but he has not yet been extradited to Kyiv.