UKRAINE: Ukraine fast tracks training of National Guard volunteers to overcome years of neglect of the armed forces as security forces struggle to meet rebellion in east

Record ID: 574351

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukraine fast tracks training of National Guard volunteers to overcome years of neglect of the armed forces as security forces struggle to meet rebellion in east
  • Date: 10th May 2014
  • Summary: NOVI PETRIVTSI, UKRAINE (MAY 8, 2014) (REUTERS) TRAINING OF THE NATIONAL GUARD BY A HELICOPTER SOLDIERS RUNNING AND MOVING THROUGH OBSTACLE COURSE SOLDIERS RUNNING/INSTRUCTOR SHOOTING VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS TRAINING AND FIGHTING SOLDIERS BOXING SOLDIERS DOING PUSH-UPS INSTRUCTOR COUNTING VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS FIGHTING WITH SHOVELS/INSTRUCTOR WALKING AND WATCHING THEM VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS SHOOTING FROM PERSONAL GRENADE LAUNCHERS TANK BEING SHOT AT BY GRENADE LAUNCHER/SMOKE VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS CHARGING CARTRIDGE SOLDIERS SHOOTING AT TYRES TYRES BEING SHOT/SMOKE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) NATIONAL GUARD VOLUNTEER, OLEKSANDER 23-YEARS OLD SAYING: "Events require that the state intervene immediately. Reservists and volunteers are towers of strength, because people are motivated. But we need good training and good equipment. We are undergoing training now. And we are waiting for equipment." VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS SHOOTING AT TARGETS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) NATIONAL GUARD VOLUNTEER, OLEKSANDER 23-YEARS OLD SAYING: "The National Guard has the strongest will working in the most difficult conditions of all the divisions. Discipline, will and motivation are the three components of our success." VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS SHOOTING GUNS TARGETS BEING SHOT MORE OF SOLDIERS SHOOTING GUNS (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) YURIY TYMOSHENKO, RECRUIT, TRAINED AS PARATROOPER, 52, SAYING: "We are one team. We need peace and discipline. Victory won't be for a bigger army, it will be for the small and well-disciplined army. And I see this clearly." SOLDIERS RUNNING WITH GUNS, LAYING DOWN AND CHARGING GUNS VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS CHARGING GUNS
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BA683DYBI1Z827GCXJUC28O3
  • Story Text: Ukraine is training new recruits to add to their poorly maintained National Guard. The first platoon has already been sent to the east and last week the second group was undergoing intensive training in Novi Petrivtsi, near Kiev.
    With just a day to go before separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions carry out some sort of referendum on gaining independence from Kiev, the government wants to ensure their poorly equipped army is ready to fight insurgents who may well be emboldened by the result of the vote.
    Even though Russia's President called on the separatists to postpone the May 11 referendum, an apparent majority vote for the separatists could be the cue Moscow needs to make military forays into eastern Ukraine.
    But weeks of fighting have exposed 20 years of neglect of Ukraine's security forces since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Eastern rebels that Kiev and the West say are backed by Russian special forces benefit from political vacillation, disarray among the generals and field commanders unsure of their orders.
    And at the ground level, the soldiers' primary concern not to harm civilians as they fight separatists entrenched in city buildings has hampered their ability to halt the pro-Russian movement.
    While an outright invasion by Russia, which would trigger a tense NATO-Russia standoff across Europe, seems less likely for now, President Vladimir Putin has left the option open.
    Insurrection began in eastern, Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine after protests in Kiev forced pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovich to flee to Russia. Since then rebels have seized cities across the region, mostly with little resistance.
    The Interior Ministry and police forces have been found wanting, some accused of direct collaboration with pro-Russian activists. Police chiefs throughout the country have been replaced, in the east their jobs taken by rebels.
    The entire police leadership in Odessa was sacked after eastern insurgency spread for a day to the southwestern port city, raising fears of a lurch to civil war. More than 40 police died in clashes, most rebel activists trapped in a blazing building.
    Oleksander, 23, stood in a field near Kiev dressed in camouflage uniform, forage cap and reflective glasses, his face masked. He is a recruit to the newly formed National Guard that he sees as the vanguard of a revived Ukrainian fighting spirit.
    "Events require that the state intervene immediately. Reservists and volunteers are towers of strength, because people are motivated. But we need good training and good equipment. We are undergoing training now. And we are waiting for equipment," he said.
    "The National Guard has the strongest will working in the most difficult conditions of all the divisions. Discipline, will and motivation are the three components of our success," he said as shells exploded over a sandy ridge across the field.
    There seemed to be no lack of enthusiasm among recruits firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on the practice range surrounded by silver birch forest. Initial training for Sasha's second Kiev battalion of 270 men is three weeks.
    Oleksander describes his background as that of a "social activist" and says he comes from the eastern town of Sumy 40 km (25 miles) from the Russian border.
    The National Guard, founded in March, is based on the old Interior Ministry paramilitary force of 33,000, and will be augmented by some 3,000 volunteers. Some come from the "self-defence forces" involved in demonstrations early this year that eventually forced pro-Russian president Yanukovich to flee.
    Oleksander laments the state of the army, which he says has been undermined by infiltration by "foreign agents" - a reference to pro-Russian loyalists - appointed to key positions especially in the intelligence services and army by Yanukovich. It is a sentiment widely shared in Kiev.
    Moscow denies any subversive role or link to the rebels and blames Kiev for a crisis that has raised fears in other ex-Soviet states with Russian minorities.
    Oleksander says he is determined to learn quickly. "I paid a lot of attention to self-education. I can't say I'm a professional but I also can't say I have no knowledge," he said.
    Yuriy Tymoshenko, 52, is a trained paratrooper who volunteered to join the younger recruits.
    He understands the shortcomings of Ukraine's forces but says this will not stand in the way of victory.
    "We are one team. We need peace and discipline. Its not the bigger army that will secure victory but the the small and well-disciplined army. And I see this clearly," says Tymoshenko.
    Lack of modern equipment and tactical training is also a serious problem. Across the border, Russian forces learned lessons on both counts from a war with Georgia in 2008.
    Mariupol, a major industrial and shipping centre in the Donetsk region that has declared a breakaway "People's Republic", seems to have become something of a testing ground, with Kiev trying a range of tactics to claw back control.
    Ukrainian forces carried out a series of probing raids this week, taking over checkpoints and key buildings there, before withdrawing. Gunmen melt away, then reappear, to be confronted again by soldiers in what amounts to shadow boxing.
    Military operations scaled up on Friday (May 9) when the National Guard steamed through the city with APCs and carried out a major assault on the City Hall and a police station to dislodge separatists. The Defence Minister said 20 separatists were killed as a result though the figure could not be verified.
    But social media showed soldiers occasionally confronted by angry pro-Russians in the city's street corners fighting an urban warfare they appeared ill-prepared for.
    One video also showed a man in civilian clothes shooting at soldiers trying to cross the road and the military shooting back leaving one man bleeding on the ground.
    And the pro-Russian protesters also managed to commandeer an APC which they rode victoriously through the city at the end of the battle.
    The conflict in the east remains a murky affair; inexperienced Ukrainian forces sounding out insurgents, who are sometimes untrained civilians touting a rifle, sometimes apparently well trained fighters with heavy machine guns.
    It could continue well after a vote for autonomy in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions scheduled for Sunday (May 11).
    The five soldiers seized from their Mariupol checkpoint were freed after negotiations between local police and militants. Talks between Kiev and the rebels, though, appear far away, rhetoric becomes more uncompromising and the danger grows that Ukraine's still struggling security forces will be put to the test while still in disarray.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register