Ramon BabackOn July 3, 2023, the Armenian Arbat battalion was "blessed" for the war against Ukraine in Moscow by the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow, which once blessed the Armenian Bagramyan battalion, known for its atrocities against the Georgian civilian population of Abkhazia. The ceremony of "blessing" was attended by those wanted by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and accused in the case of the murder of Ukrainian journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy.
Among them is Armen Sarkisyan, nicknamed Horlovsky, who controlled the underworld of Horlivka during Yunukovych reign, and who was one of the organizers of the "titushky" groups during the Revolution of Dignity. Back then, the gangs #Sarkisyan organized with Sergey "#Chikyan" Andriychenko, attacked and killed people in #Donetsk. The newly created Arbat battalion is likely to be composed of "Artsakh" (#Karabakh) militants who left the territory after Azerbaijan liberated Karabakh.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, last fall Sarkisyan even became a "supervisor" of prisons both in the occupied territories of Ukraine and in Russia itself. The main task of this position was to create a new "private military company" to be sponsored by pro-Kremlin businessman Samvel Karapetyan.
Karapetyan owns Tashir Holding, a Gazprom-affiliated company that includes the Armenian Electric Networks.