2nd Bendery Battalion

The 2nd Bendery Battalion is a battalion of the Republican Guard of the MRT , formed in December 1991 in Bendery .

The battalion took an active part in the conflict, in particular, participated in the battles in Bender , taking on the same level as the Delta battalion, the main blow of the forces of the Moldovan Interior Ministry. At that time, the battalion commander was Yuri Kostenko , the number of battalions for 1992 was from 250 to 300 people. During the armed confrontation with Moldova, it consisted of a headquarters, reconnaissance platoon, three rifle companies, a support company, an attached platoon of the territorial rescue squadron and a radio division.

The activities of the battalion are currently ambiguously evaluated in Transnistria, since (according to the official version), under the leadership of Kostenko, he took part in looting and looting, but (according to an unofficial version) it was thanks to Kostenko’s battalion that the city of Bender was able to keep Transnistria. There is also a version that the escalation of hostilities in Bendery in June 1992 caused the actions of the battalion commander. According to the Memorial human rights organization, according to the words of the Transdniestrian military commandant M. Bergman, in the battalion were people who had previously served a sentence ^[1] .

During the conflict, Kostenko was in double submission: on the one hand, the military command, on the other - the city leadership.

A few days before the tragic events of June 19, the Moldavian equipment began to be attached to the outskirts of the city, as reported by the intelligence of the 2nd Battalion. The PMR leadership was counting on compliance with the Moldova ceasefire agreement signed the day before, which also ordered the withdrawal of all troops from the city. The warnings of Kostenko and Bender’s management about the impossibility of leaving the city unarmed were not heeded. As a result, the main part of Transnistrian troops and equipment left the city, about 60 guardsmen of the battalion remained in Bendery. This led to the impossibility of repelling the Moldovan attack on the city. The city was practically taken, except for some centers of resistance. After the battle for the bridge and the entry of Transnistrian troops into Bendery, Kostenko sharply criticized the leadership of Transnistria for the fact that the city remained defenseless because of their fault.

On July 16, after the events in Bendery, Yury Kostenko himself was accused by the PMR Prosecutor’s Office of illegal arms trade, looting and war crimes and later detained, and the 2nd Bendery battalion was disbanded. In the same year, Yuriy Kostenko died under unclear circumstances (his burnt body without hands was found in a shot and burned car) ^[2] .