UKRAINE: Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region arms thousands to protect its territory from armed separatists

Record ID: 695022

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region arms thousands to protect its territory from armed separatists
  • Date: 21st May 2014
  • Summary: BRATSKE, UKRAINE (MAY 21, 2014) (REUTERS) MEMBERS OF DNIPROPETROVSK DEFENCE UNIT AT CHECKPOINT VEHICLE PASSING CHECKPOINT UKRAINIAN FLAG FLYING CARS PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT CARS PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT/CHECKPOINT STAFF SEEN THROUGH BARBED WIRE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHECKPOINT COMMANDER, YEVHENY, SAYING: "We don't want to have here a situation similar to the one which currently exists in the east or actions which have been taking place in Crimea. We don't want these green people on our streets." TRUCK PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT CARS PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT SEEN THROUGH TAPED TYRE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHECKPOINT COMMANDER, YEVHENY, SAYING:: "Mainly we check and search cars with plates from other cities, buses, minibuses, shuttle buses from eastern and southern regions." DNIPROPETROVSK, UKRAINE (MAY 20, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING UKRAINIAN FLAG FLYING ENTRANCE TO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING CHIEF OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGION DEFENCE FORCES HEADQUARTERS TALKING TO HIS STAFF FLAG ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGIONAL DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS, YURI BEREZA, SAYING: "I, as a professional military man, am in charge of forming these battalions based first of all on the principle of patriotism, that's the most important, then professionalism. Because if one is a patriot he can become a professional." EMBLEM ON WALL READING "UKRAINE'S ARMED FORCES" (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGIONAL DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS, YURI BEREZA, SAYING: "Having such a neighbour as Russia with such leaders, we have to be ready to repel the aggression at any time. That's why every man in Ukraine should have an automatic machine gun, uniform at home so he can put it on and go to defend very quickly. And once a year he should take part in a military drill." MILITARY HAT ON DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGIONAL DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS, YURI BEREZA, SAYING: "Today in our regiment there are 15,000 people. Out of them about 2000 were sent to battalions. The difference between the regiment and the battalion is that the regiment consist of citizens and the battalion consists of armed people who take orders from the Defence or Interior ministries and protect the Dnipropetrovsk region." MAP OF DNIPROPETROVSK REGION ON WALL BRATSKE, UKRAINE (MAY 21, 2014) (REUTERS) CARS PASSING THROUGH CHECKPOINT AND GUARDS SEEN THROUGH BARBED WIRE AIR GUN ON JARS WITH PICKLED TOMATOES TWO MEN LOADING AIR GUN VARIOUS OF CARS PASSING BY TRAFFIC POLICE AND DEFENCE UNIT MEMBER AT CHECKPOINT
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7GFQZ0282YWSEKWX9XS6LGC8D
  • Story Text: Thousands of men from various parts of eastern Ukraine have joined defence units created in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which is seen by many in the country as an island of stability in the restive east and a pillar of resistance to pro-Russian separatists.
    The units are commanded by the regional defence headquarters and their members man checkpoints set up along the region's borders and on major highways.
    Defence units staff, along with armed policemen and traffic police, check incoming traffic at a checkpoint in the village of Bratske 16 kilometres east of Dnipropetrovsk.
    "We don't want to have here a situation similar to the one which currently exists in the east or actions which have been taking place in Crimea. We don't want these green people on our streets," said Yevheny, the checkpoint commander, referring to separatists.
    Recent events in the neighbouring Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine made him join one of the defence units. His task is to prevent separatists from infiltrating Dnipropetrovsk.
    "Mainly we check and search cars with plates from other cities, buses, minibuses, shuttle buses from eastern and southern regions," Yevheny said.
    The initiative to form armed units from volunteers came from Yuri Bereza, the chief of Dnipropetrovsk regional defence headquarters. He said it was the failure of Ukraine's armed forces and police to stop separatists from seizing cities in the east and carrying out a referendum which lead him to the idea of creating self-defence forces in the Dnipropetrovsk region. And he wanted them to be totally different from the existing Ukrainian troops.
    "I, as a professional military man, am in charge of forming these battalions based first of all on the principle of patriotism, that's the most important, then professionalism. Because if one is a patriot he can become a professional," Bereza said in an interview with Reuters.
    "Having such a neighbour as Russia with such leaders, we have to be ready to repel the aggression at any time. That's why every man in Ukraine should have an automatic machine gun, uniform at home so he can put it on and go to defend very quickly. And once a year he should take part in a military drill," he added.
    With the financial help and support of Dnipropetrovsk's regional governor and one of Ukraine's oligarchs, Igor Kolomoisky, Bereza managed to recruit thousands in less than two months.
    "Today in our regiment there are 15,000 people. Out of them about 2000 were sent to battalions. The difference between the regiment and the battalion is that the regiment consist of citizens and the battalion consists of armed people who take orders from the Defence or Interior ministries and protect the Dnipropetrovsk region," Bereza said.
    Kolomoisky, Ukraine's fourth richest man, according to Forbes magazine, has become a hate figure for the pro-Russian separatists after he said he would give $10,000 to Ukrainian troops for every "saboteur" handed over.
    The leader of the regional militia in Dnipropetrovsk, which borders Donetsk, also said $1,000 would be paid for a rifle, $1,500 for a machine-gun and $2,000 for a grenade-launcher.
    Dnipropetrovsk has been quiet since separatists started taking control of wide swathes of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions last month, in an operation blamed on Moscow by Kiev's new pro-Western leaders.
    Russia, which has long considered Slavic Ukraine an extension of its own country, denies any involvement in the unrest, saying Russian speakers are simply protecting their rights from attacks by a hostile government.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register