23 May 2014

With Ukrainian army soldiers at checkpoint between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk

Kyiv Post: 23 May 2014
With Ukrainian army soldiers at checkpoint between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk
by Anastasia Vlasova, Oksana Grytsenko

A soldier checks a car at the checkpoint near Sloviansk.

SEMIONOVKA, Donetsk Oblast -- The May 22 murders of 18 Ukrainian soldiers near Olhinka in Donetsk Oblast served as tragic reminders to the world that Ukraine is locked in a bloody war with Kremlin-backed separatists.  
But Ukrainian army soldiers trying to stay alive at a checkpoint near the village of Semionovka between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, two cities controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists, don't need any reminders. 

They know the dangers all too well. And so do their bosses.

Maxim, a tank man, showed the Kyiv Post journalists a big hole in the ground caused when a shell exploded only 50 meters from his tank. In yet more bitter irony, the gun that fired the shell was a Ukrainian one. It belonged to a group of soldiers from Dnipropetrovsk airborne brigade, who defected from the Ukrainian army and now fight on the side of Sloviansk separatists against their former comrades.

Maxim said that the traitors initially called their former colleagues trying to entice them to defect with stories of getting good salaries for siding with the Kremlin-backed insurgents, officially considered to as terrorists by the Ukrainian government and many other Ukrainians.


Wearing shorts he made from military pants and a khaki bandana, sporting a tattoo in the shape of a paratrooper on his shoulder, Maxim said he iis not sure why he stands there day and night, suffering from heat and dodging shells.


Andriy, a tall guy with a small pistol in his hand, stops and closely checks cars coming from Sloviansk. He said the defectors were are getting some Hr 4,000 per day, while the Ukrainian soldiers were receiving less than this amount per month. 
Still Andriy stays “for the sake of Ukraine,” emphatically making his patriotic point: “This is my country and I’m serving it."

Andriy is a former Berkut police officer part of a unit disbanded for brutality against protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution. Andriy speaks perfect Ukrainian as he comes from Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine. He said he wasn’t injured during the EuroMaidan Revolution, but he hated the National Guard unit that was partly formed from former Maidan protesters. “They were throwing Molotov cocktails at me,” he said.

Andriy believes he is serving his country here near Sloviansk just the way he did it in Kyiv several months ago. Every day he calls on a priest to get some advice about his life.

Dima, a guy in blue beret of paratrooper and with a wide smile, approaches to us from the forest, where the soldiers have their little camp. “Do you know what’s going on in my Odesa now?” he asked. Its said cause it’s hard for me to get fresh news about my native city.


Dima said he was fighting not for Ukraine but rather for the local people who keep bringing water and food for the soldiers, opening themselves to to the risk of being persecuted by the separatists if caught. “Without these people we would die here,” he said.
There is a line of jars with homemade pickles along the road where the tanks are parked as well as the cheapest “kilka in tomato sauce,” or canned fish. The soldiers said they also received some NATO dry rations sent them by the army. 


The conversation was stopped by an officer, who came and pointed out that it was getting darker and shootouts mostly start in the night.

“Ladies, you better go now,” he told the Kyiv Post, smiling.
“And you guys, get to your vehicles,” he yelled, addressing his soldiers.

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