Volodymyr Anatoliiovych Baraniuk (Ukrainian: Володимир Анатолійович Баранюк; born 1974) is a Ukrainian military officer. He commanded the 36th Separate Marine Brigade from September 2021 to March 2022 and is best known for his role during the Siege of Mariupol.
Biography
Baraniuk started his military career in 2000, as platoon commander in the 1st Separate Marine Brigade in Crimea. In 2014, at the time of the Russian takeover of Crimea, and subsequently got detained and beaten up by the Russian forces.[1] He was deputy commander of the 1st Separate Marine Battalion, stationed in Feodosia, of which he assumed command in April 2015.[2] In 2014, he was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd degree.[3]
As the Russian forces gradually captured most of the city, the 36th Separate Marine Brigade entrenched itself within the Illich Steel and Iron Works. In the night between 11 and 12 April, the brigade attempted a breakout, as a result of which some 500 marines managed to link up with Ukrainian forces present in Azovstal iron and steel works, while an unknown number were killed or captured and over a thousand, including some 400 wounded, were taken prisoner when Russian forces seized the Illich steel plant on the following day.[5][6][7] Afterwards, the whereabouts of Colonel Baraniuk became unknown, with MajorSerhiy Volynskyi assuming command of the remnants of the brigade besieged in the Azovstal plant.[8] On 17 April Eduard Basurin, spokesman of the DPR Military Command, claimed that Baraniuk had been killed during the breakout attempt and that his body had been identified, but no evidence was provided for this claim.[9]
On 8 May 2022, Baraniuk appeared alive in an interview with RT, proving previous reports of his death to be false. It was stated that he had been captured in a field a few kilometers north of Mariupol, together with his chief of staff, Colonel Dmytro Kormiankov (who also appeared in the interview), and a number of his men. He is currently held by the Russian Federation as a prisoner of war.[10][11][12]
