-
-
Ice Cream, Corpses, and the Big Bear: Repatriating Dead Russians From Ukraine
By Harriet Salem
May 30, 2014 | 4:15 pm
“The factory is closed! No one is here,” shouted a large, peroxide-blond in military fatigues, to anyone who approaches the firmly closed metal gate.
Sheets of rain cascaded down, but the crashing storm did not manage to clear the stench of death from the afternoon air.
Inside the rebel-commandeered ice cream refrigeration complex in Donetsk, behind a stack of wooden crates, young men and medics in green scrubs were at work preparing disfigured corpses for their final journey home. Some had to be pieced back together.
The gruesome task took several hours to complete.
Against a garish backdrop of brightly-colored vans and cartoon ads, the workers neatly stacked their precious cargo onto the back of a truck. A last journey will be made in this makeshift ambulance put together by the rebels, hastily whitewashed and painted over with a red cross and “200”— Soviet-era military code for their dead.
Each casket is marked with the red, black, and blue flag of the DPR — Donetsk People’s Republic. But the 30 men stretched out in these coffins are not from the fledgling rebel-state they laid down their lives for; they travelled here from Russia.
Most are believed to have been killed in the fierce battle between rebels and Ukrainian military for control of Donetsk airport after a Kamaz military truck transporting the wounded was hit by sniper fire, scattering body parts on the highway.
These deaths, and the repatriation of the bodies back to their motherland across Ukraine’s eastern border, mark a significant turning point in the spreading crisis that has gripped the country.
Despite Moscow’s persistent rejection of Russian men fighting in Ukraine’s east, it is now undeniable they are here.
Paperwork shown to VICE News confirmed that at least some of the dead being transported across the border were, as claimed by the rebels, Russians.
In March, Crimea was annexed by Moscow after a Putin-backed putsch overseen by the so-called “green men” — Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) operating without insignia.
But the swift and efficient departure of the southern peninsula from Ukraine to Russia could not stand in starker contrast to events in the east, which, while already bloody and protracted, are still far from resolved.
Instead of direct military support, the Kremlin’s solution to Ukraine’s eastern crisis has been a porous border: a blind eye to the movements of fighters and rebel leaders in the shadows of its territory, and a safe passage for the flow of illegal arms to its eastern neighbors.
The resulting free-for-all has encouraged paramilitary groups, some likely backed by warlords and oligarchs, to flood into the region.
Sayid, a Chechen fighter being treated at the Donetsk trauma unit for a gunshot wound in his ankle, told VICE News how he had travelled to Rostov in Russia for construction work. Once there, he was offered the opportunity to fight in Ukraine and headed with his unit for the border.
Aslan, a nervous gunman in a black tracksuit who patrols the ice cream factory, told VICE News a similar story. The 33-year-old Ossetian says that his group traveled to Donetsk to provide humanitarian aid, but then decided to join the fight.
Others from the Caucasus and other post-Soviet states are also thought to be among the swirling mix of paramilitaries descending on the region.
“The more the Ukrainian army attack us, the more fighters we have,” says Varan, Head of Security for the DPR.
Varan, whose name means “monitor lizard” in Russian, is a Chechen, but claimed that men are coming from all around the region. “All the neighboring countries have offered to send fighters,” he tells VICE News. “They come legally into the country in civilian clothes, and then form units once they arrive,” he adds.
Some may well be volunteers fighting for a patriotic belief in “Novorossiya.” The expansionist concept, which echoes from the Soviet Union and even Russian Empire past, also resonates with the contemporary neo-nationalist groups that emerged at the beginning of Putin’s second term in the early 2000s.
Yet while some may be fighting for the idea, others are likely paid mercenaries, or bandits looking for their slice of power and money when the spoils of revolution are divvied up.
Guarding his wounded comrades outside the hospital, 30-year-old Chechen fighter Magomed said he came to Donetsk for “personal interests” and would “like to be a boss.”
There are plenty of opportunities here for the aspiring rebel fighter. Yesterday, in a seeming coup, the infamous Vostok Battalion cleared out the men of the self-styled people’s leader Pavel Gubarev from the city’s occupied administration building.
The heavily armed Vostok Battalion, whose name is a hat tip to a defunct Russian special military unit, said they were just dealing with looters. But it is suspected that the operation was in fact a takeover that concludes, at least temporarily, a simmering power struggle between competing rebel factions.
Locals are still hoping Putin will give a little more support than bandits and humanitarian aid — the latter was pledged yesterday by the Russian president — but the pleas for military reinforcements, or at least peacekeeping troops, have gone unanswered.
Indeed, as the truck lumbered away from the ice cream factory with its cargo of corpses, the distance between the powers in Moscow and the rebel-run Donetsk could not be clearer.
On the road to the border with Russia, a sign featuring a Soviet solider boldly proclaims: “Heroic actions are immortal.” But the bodies in the back of the truck are not Russia’s heroes; they are its dirty secret.
For these dead men there was no safe passage, no final salute, and no solemn celebration of a soldier’s final return home.
Slava, the truck’s stocky driver, was visibly agitated. He was asked only that morning “by people I couldn’t say no to” to undertake the dangerous journey through contested land, and said he has no idea what will happen on the other side of the border, other than “people will come to meet [him]."
Local militia groups don’t want to travel with their fallen comrades either; they are too afraid their presence will provoke an attack. Instead, they send an envoy of strangers to accompany the load: two plainclothes police officers, and one car of journalists as a human shield.
The Russian press, which enjoy exclusive access to the rebels’ world thanks to the influence of the Kremlin, was notably absent. The snub is a telling sign of Moscow’s position.
The rebels’ nervousness about the journey is not misplaced; the road to the border is treacherous for them. Rolling fields and dilapidated villages normally make for a scenic countryside drive, but now the litter of burned-out barricades and abandoned checkpoints testify to the encroaching war, and stretches of forest are ideal territory for snipers.
At the border, a tense search of the truck and its cargo was interrupted by the shouts and gunfire of an unannounced unit of Ukrainian soldiers. Finally, it was permitted to trundle across the border, to the relief of all involved.
The Big Dipper, known in Russia as the Big Bear, twinkled overhead. The truck headed towards whatever waits on the other side, the noise of its engine replaced by the buzz of mosquitos. Border guards peered into the clear night, guns slung over shoulders.
Even amid the chaos of war, one thing is now clear to everyone: Russia is here, but she doesn’t want to claim her men.
Follow Harriet on Twitter @HarrietSalem
All photos by Harriet SalemLast edited by katina; 05-31-2014, 04:08 PM.Comment
-
Everyone is in the Ukraine. Academy (Blackwater), Dual Israeli citizens in Right Sector (Admitted by a dual Canadian/Israeli citizen on the way over to the Ukraine), probably the CIA. I'm sure Spetznaz as well. All I know is the people (clearly oligarchs) behind the coupe in Kiev who took a legitimate protest and destroyed a nation should be water boarded with hot crankcase oil.No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
-
Ever been to Kiev Alfred? I have. Let's see I buy my health food from a guy from Odessa. A good family friend is from Kiev and still has family there. I have friends in Russia who have relatives in the Ukraine. I hear both sides of the story. The ones in the western Ukraine don't trust the Russians and the Russians are worried about the anti-russian government and thugs.
The Ukraine used to be a large contractor for Russia. Putin had to grab Crimea to keep NATO from getting their Black Sea naval port in Sevestopol. Russia had a long term lease but when the US and EU break their promise not to move NATO east and the legal government you were dealing with falls apart. You kind of have to guard your assets. Just be glad Putin did it in a manner that didn't set off a major war.
As far as the government in KIev goes, it's nice to have a government that kills it's own soldiers when they refuse orders to fire on their own civilians. The way I see it. The US and the EU and whoever else destroyed a country to try and bait Russia into a war. Russia did not take the bait. It just drove China and Russia together and now they are working to take the petrodollar down to kill NATO's financing. All they have to do is draw Saudi Arabia over to their side and it's done.
Fine with me. It will destroy the Federal Reserve Bank. All we have to do is issue US Treasury Notes through the US Treasury again and we will be done paying interest to a bunch of private bankers to use our own money. The US just won't have the big reserve currency anymore and the world will be more evenly skewed. If that avoids a lot of carnage and a no win war. Fine with me. Maybe we can be an exporter again and people can have a real economy again instead of this debt/welfare system we are thrashing in.No! You can't have the keys to the wine cellar!Comment
-
LMFAO, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. The Kiev regime has shown complete restraint. You have Russian citizens walking around Ukrainian territory heavily armed and terrorising people from voting and preventing the rule of law and allowing crime and looting. Most people the the Ukraine speak Russian and feel some affinity for them. But the whole "shoooting their own people" is so patently ignorant, stupid, and offensive as it was the Russian-crony Ukrainian president that ordered his police to open fire on civilian demonstrations killing upwards of over 100 of them before he fled for Mother Russia. Do I need to post sources for this, Nitrous?...Comment
-
Mustafa Dzhemilev's battle for Crimea
The former leader of the Crimean Tatar community, Mustafa Dzhemilev, is receiving the Polish government's first Solidarity Award. It comes 70 years after he successfully fought for the right to return to his homeland.
A grey-haired man in a suit and tie is walking along a rural street, surrounded by bodyguards who make him seem small and helpless. He doesn't make it far. Dozens of police officers in combat gear with two military vehicles have blocked the streets. One of the officers says he can't continue.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the blockade, thousands of mostly young men have come to receive the older gentleman. Some of them even break through the barricade and cry, "Mustafa!", but they can't help him.
This scene played out on May 3 near the city of Armyansk, along the new border between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March. The older man's name is Mustafa Dzhemilev. For decades, he was a leader of Crimea's Tatars, and on that particular day, he wanted to go home. Authorities in Crimea continue to deny him entry to this day.
It's against this background that Dzhemilev will receive the Polish government's first Solidarity Award, which grants the honoree one million euros ($1.36 million). The name of the prize derives from Poland's Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union, whose fight against the communist regime contributed to the first somewhat free elections and a change of power in Warsaw in 1989.
Dzhemilev is being honored for his "service to democracy and respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens in Ukraine, particularly with respect to the Tatars," the Polish government said of its decision.
Forced resettlement
For the 70-year-old, the denial of entry to Crimea is particularly bitter. For the first time in decades, Dzhemilev could not take part in a May 18 ceremony memorializing the forced relocation of Crimean Tatars. Now, he must once again fight for a home that he already won once.
Mustafa Dzhemilev was born on November 13, 1943, in a Soviet village in Crimea that was then occupied by Nazi Germany. Around six months later, his family, along with more than 180,000 other Crimean Tatars, was deported to Central Asia. As a justification, the government in Moscow claimed the Crimean Tatars had collaborated with the Nazis. Dzhemilev's family was sent thousands of kilometers east of Crimea to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, like most other Crimean Tatars.
15 years behind bars
Even as a youth, Dzhemilev harbored a deep interest in the history of his people in Crimea. He founded a union for Crimean Tatar youth before he was even 20 years old - an organization that fought for Tatars to return to their homeland, which led the Soviet Union to ban it. Dzhemilev lost his job as a laborer in an aircraft factory, but was permitted to study at an agricultural institute. That also proved short-lived. In 1965, he was removed from school on formal grounds.
One year later, in May 1966, Dzhemilev was convicted by a court for refusing military service. But he accused the Soviet security agency, the KGB, of wanting to punish him for his activism in support of Crimean Tatars' rights.
Later, Dzhemilev was convicted five times and spent a total of around 15 years in prison. He was friends with famous Soviet dissidents, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov. Human rights activist Petro Grigorenko described Dzhemilev in a magazine as "a person with an unbelievably strong will."
In 1975, Dzhemilev embarked on a ten-month hunger strike and was force-fed.
From dissident to politician
During the perestroika period under Mikhail Gorbachev, Dzhemilev was released from jail. He returned with his family to Crimea in 1989 and was voted head of the traditional Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, a group he led through 2013. He worked in favor of bringing back Crimean Tatars from Central Asia - a time full of tense conflicts. That's because houses in which Crimean Tatars once lived had been handed over to Russians during the Soviet era. Dzhemilev managed to de-escalate the tensions.
In the 1990s, Dzhemilev got involved in politics and was elected to parliament in Kyiv in 1998 for the party Narodny Ruch Ukrainy (Ukrainian People's Movement). He remains a member of parliament today, although he is now without a party. During the Orange Revolution in 2004, Dzhemilev and the Crimean Tatars on the side of pro-Western presidential candidate Viktor Yushenko.
Possible minister post?
As pro-Russian sentiment grew stronger in Crimea at the end of February 2014, thousands of Tatars protested against a break-up of Ukraine. Shortly before the annexation of the peninsula, Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to win Dzhemilev over to his side. "He apparently wanted us to maintain neutrality, although that word was never used," Dzhemilev said in a televised interview about his half-hour phone call with the head of the Kremlin. The approximately 300,000 Crimean Tatars did not take part in the March 16 referendum on Crimea joining Russia. They also opted not to engage in armed conflict against the vote.
Today, Dzhemilev resides in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Petro Poroshenko, who was elected president on May 25, announced he would establish a ministry to deal with Crimean affairs. Dzhemilev is being discussed as a potential head of the institution.Comment
-
Ode to Poo-poo-poo-Putin
I´m glad I could get a translation into english.Comment
-
Guess we'll see if that happens now.
U.S. official says 1,000 Russian troops enter Ukraine
By Victoria Butenko, Laura Smith-Spark and Diana Magnay, CNN
updated 10:17 AM EDT, Thu August 28, 2014
Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A top Ukrainian army officer said a "full-scale invasion" of his country was under way Thursday, as a U.S. official said up to 1,000 Russian troops had crossed Ukraine's southern border to fight alongside pro-Russian rebels.
U.S. officials said Russian troops were directly involved in the latest fighting, despite Moscow's denials.
Rebels backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers fought Ukrainian forces on two fronts Thursday: southeast of rebel-held Donetsk, and along the nation's southern coast in the town of Novoazovsk, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Russian border, according to Mykhailo Lysenko, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Donbas battalion.
"This is a full-scale invasion," Lysenko said, referring to the fighting in the south.
Ukraine: Russians captured in east
Intelligence now indicates that up to 1,000 Russian troops have moved into southern Ukraine with heavy weapons and are fighting there, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.
Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council said that Russian forces were in full control of Novoazovsk as of Wednesday afternoon.
Russia's military fired Grad rockets into the town and its suburbs before sending in two convoys of tanks and armored personnel carriers from Russia's Rostov region, it said in a statement
"Ukrainian troops were ordered to pull out to save their lives. By late afternoon both Russian convoys had entered the town. Ukraine is now fortifying nearby Mariupol to the west," the NDSC said.
A number of villages in the Novoazovsk, Starobeshiv and Amvrosiiv districts were also seized, it said.
The NDSC also warned that a rebel counterattack is expected in the area where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July. Ukrainian and Western officials believe it was downed by rebels armed with Russian-made weapons.
Novoazovsk is strategically important because it lies on the main road leading from the Russian border to Ukraine's Crimea region, which Russia annexed in March. Separatist leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions then declared independence from Kiev.
U.N. Security Council to meet
As international concern mounted over the apparent escalation in fighting, Lithuania requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
UK ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall Grant said Russia would be asked to explain why its soldiers are in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had earlier called for the U.N. meeting, as well as action by Europe.
The latest flare-up comes despite a meeting between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Belarus on Tuesday at which some progress appeared to have been made toward finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Ukrainians fight to survive amid siege Questions return with Russian convoy
Poroshenko canceled a planned trip to Turkey on Thursday "due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region ... as Russian troops were brought into Ukraine," a statement from his office said.
In a Cabinet meeting, Yatsenyuk said Russia "has very much increased its military presence in Ukraine" and that tougher measures may be needed to curb Russia's support for the rebels.
"Unfortunately, the sanctions were unhelpful as to de-escalating the situation in Ukraine," he said, referring to the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union against Russian individuals and companies.
Yatsenyuk suggested one way to halt "Russian aggression" could be to freeze all assets and ban all Russian bank transactions until Russia "pulls out all its military, equipment and agents" from Ukraine.
"Vladimir Putin has purposely started a war in Europe. It is impossible to hide from the fact," he said.
U.S. ambassador: Russia is directly involved
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt also said Thursday that Russian soldiers were directly involved in the fighting, alongside the pro-Russia rebels.
"Russian-supplied tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and multiple rocket launchers have been insufficient to defeat Ukraine's armed forces, so now an increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in the fighting on Ukrainian territory," he said on Twitter.
"Russia has also sent its newest air defense systems including the SA-22 into eastern Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting."
Moscow denies supporting and arming the pro-Russia rebels. It has also repeatedly denied allegations by Kiev that it has sent troops over the border.
A Russian senator and the deputy head of the Committee on Defense and Security in Russia's upper house of Parliament, Evgeny Serebrennikov, dismissed the latest reports of a Russian incursion as untrue.
"We've heard many statements from the government of Ukraine, which turned out to be a lie. What we can see now is just another lie," he said to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky also accused Kiev of lies, in comments to RIA Novosti.
"I can only say that there's no ground for claims like this, and the junta tries to lay its own fault at someone else's door," he said, referring to the Kiev government.
Moscow regards it as illegitimate because it took charge after Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February.
Russian soldiers detained in Ukraine; leaders meet in Minsk
Rebel leader: 3,000 to 4,000 Russians in our ranks
However, the Prime Minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, acknowledged Thursday that there are current Russian servicemen fighting in the rebels' ranks in eastern Ukraine.
In his statement, televised on state-run Russia 24, Zakharchenko said the rebels have never concealed that many Russians are fighting with them. He said up until now there were 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers, some of whom are retired Russian servicemen.
Zakharchenko went on to reveal that the Russian servicemen currently fighting in their ranks are active, "as they came to us to struggle for our freedom instead of their vacations."
On Tuesday, Ukraine's Security Service said it had detained 10 Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Russian state media cited a source in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the soldiers had been patrolling the border and "most likely crossed by accident" at an unmarked point.
The NDSC said Thursday that Ukraine's Security Service detained another Russian serviceman who testified that his unit was supplying heavy military equipment to militants.
Pro-Kiev forces apparently already have engaged with rebel forces between Novoazovsk and Mariupol, the Sea of Azov port city 35 kilometers to the west that the country's security council said was being fortified.
A CNN crew north of Mariupol saw a ragged convoy of about 25 vehicles, some with their windows smashed out, belonging to pro-Kiev volunteer fighters heading away from the city Thursday afternoon.
The volunteers, including two from the country of Georgia, said they'd been involved in fighting in the Mariupol area but didn't provide details.
Earlier Thursday and further north, the CNN crew was near Donetsk city, which Ukrainian forces have been trying to wrest from rebels for weeks. Heavy Ukrainian artillery fire targeted areas near Donetsk's southern suburbs amid a heavy downpour of rain.
The main highway 15 kilometers south of Donetsk was deserted. With return fire coming from Donetsk, villagers in the area said they'd been taking shelter indoors or underground, coming out only for an hour or two a day to get supplies.
Ukraine's secret weapon: Funding from the country's millionaires
'Russian-directed counteroffensive'
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Wednesday highlighted the latest reports of heavy fighting around Novoazovsk and Donetsk airport, as well as of "additional columns of Russian tanks, multiple rocket launchers and armored vehicles" heading for communities in southeastern Ukraine.
"These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway in Donetsk and Luhansk," she said. "Clearly that is of deep concern to us."
She accused Moscow of not acting in a transparent manner when it came to the Russian people, as well as Ukraine and the rest of the world.
"We're also concerned by the Russian government's unwillingness to tell the truth even as its soldiers are found 30 miles inside Ukraine," she said. "Russia is sending its young men into Ukraine but are not telling them where they're going or telling their parents what they're doing."
On Wednesday, NDSC also claimed that members of a Russian tactical battalion were present in the village of Pobeda, in Ukraine's Luhansk region.
"If these troops got lost and accidentally found themselves in Ukraine as well, they should go back East," the update said.
The city of Luhansk, a rebel stronghold, has been at the center of fighting for days, prompting a humanitarian crisis. The NDSC said it remained without water, power or phone connections Thursday.
Looks like those sanctions and bank accounts really but the brakes on this whole thing after all.
Comment
Tweet
Comment