This Ukrainian Story

December 2014

Story Ukrainian This

Who are the Nationalists

fighting the war in East Ukraine since it started?

by Felipe Paiva

Poster of former President Viktor Yanukovich is a reminder of why Ukrainians are fighting.

Why Ukraine?

Why has Ukraine been of such importance in the world news when there are so many other issues from ISIS to Mexican mass murder? This would be hard to conclude right now, however some ideas could be considered. First of all, there is no doubt it is much safer to investigate in Ukraine than in Iraq or Syria, therefore, becoming much easier to report. However, the most powerful reason may be that the conflict has escalated to a very high level of international tension.

During the 50s and until the late 80s the world was divided by political ideology and constantly living in fear of military hostilities between the most powerful nations: The United States of America and the Soviet Union. After the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union all tensions seemed to dissipate. Although the Soviet Union no longer existed, Russia was still an influential country reluctant to accept ideological defeat.

Russian oligarchic class until today has a strong influence in some Eastern European countries that lie close to their national borders. They would accept losing this power, and also intend to expand it. Since 2006 Moscow and Kiev have been competing for gas rates and in 2008 Putin warned about his intention for retaliation if Ukraine applied to join NATO. Until 2013 world leaders were just talking theatrically about political threats, however, after the Ukrainian uprising, actions started to take place.

After the first deaths in late January the Ukrainian Uprising entered a standoff that would last three weeks.

Thousands of people gathered at Maydan - known as Independence Square - during the standoff in early February.

Barricades that protected protesters in central Kiev were mainly made of bags of ice.

Protesters and Berkut - the Riot Police - would face each other 24h a day.

Occupied Maydan in early February.

Berkut Riot Police watching over the barricades in early February.

Young nationalists that were responsible for defending the barricades.

“In Ukraine we had a completely corrupt leader who was robbing the country blind with his family and friends, raiding businesses, shutting down free press, lying blatantly and taking the country into the hands of Russia – a corrupt, intolerant, and generally unattractive state. That is why people stood in unbearable cold and fight for a change.�

Anna Korbut, 29

This year, during the 25th celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev warned that the levels of aggression between Western countries and Russia are as high as during the Cold War times. The difference this time is that there is no ideology at stake.

Briefly, in the last 8 months Russia has been accused of instigating and arming separatists in

Central Kiev was still occupied by early May. Protesters were waiting for a new elected government to be formed.

The world seems to be concerned about the whole crisis but only highlighting external roles of the Ukrainian Revolution.

Germany, Poland, Canada and U.S. are now aiding the Ukrainian side with training, non-lethal supplies and money.

All these moves are provocative towards Russia that will not hesitate in replying with aggression. Holland and Malaysia were targeted when a commercial jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down near Donetsk, killing almost 300 civilians.

All those stories are being told by many different outlets, however only a few seem to care for the Ukrainian people - after all it is the Ukrainian uprising: They are supposed to be the protagonists. Who are they? What do they want? After the fall of Yanukovich, people felt lost and not knowing what to do next. Meanwhile politically engaged nationalists started to organize themselves. In this unit I will talk about the controversial paramilitary branch of the political party Pravi Sector.

A supporter of Pro-Russian movement stands in front of a Lenin statue that got destroyed in late September in the eastern city of Kharkov.

A Tartar girl attends a rally in Kiev against Crimean annexation by Russia.

Who are the Ukrainian nationalists fighting in the East?

In the early stages of the Ukrainian uprising, a group of people took the world’s attention for their violence and courage against Yanukovych’s government forces. Some are thankful for their actions and some are afraid of what they might become. The Pravi Sector, also known as Right Sector is a right-wing party formed by different nationalist groups, which registered as a political party in May 2014. It is not my intention to discuss what a right-wing or left-wing government might mean in modern politics, I simply state how they refer to themselves.

During Yanukovich’s last days of governance many major international newspapers claimed that a fascist coup was going on in Ukraine, due to nationalists’s - that are now part of Pravi Sector - cooperation with Nazi Germany during the WWII. Out of context and in a simplistic view they can be seen as anti-Semitic for killing Polish Jews and Soviets. However what is not explained is that the cooperation with Germany had nothing to do with Germany’s goals but with Ukrainian freedom.

Back in times there had been a great Polish of Ukraine invasion that had the goal to ‘polishize’ every Ukrainian. People were forced to convert to Catholicism, had to go to Polish schools and were culturally oppressed for a long period of time. There were also conflicts with Russia and later on in the Soviet Union. The famine of 1921 and 1932 which killed almost 7 million people (these number can varies according to sources from 4 to 10 million), created a strong anti-Soviet and anti-Communist feeling among Ukrainians, thus leading them to collaborate with those fighting against the Soviet Union and Poland. It is easier to say that they were on Germany’s side, becoming ‘bad guys’, instead of seeing Ukrainians as defending themselves from their oppressors.

Nationalists do not have an official anti-Semitic speech. If one or another does, that does not mean the group as a whole does. In England there are anti-Semitic groups and much more xenophobic attitudes than Ukrainian nationalists. The Pravi Sector military branch is formed by volunteers from different ethnicities, religions and countries, including Russians, the very nationality who they are fighting against in the East of the country.

“We don’t want a country exclusively for Ukrainians only. All we want is to have a country that is ruled by Ukrainians and for Ukrainians, not for oligarchs and companies from a dictatorship that is Russia. There is nothing fascist about that.”

Tanchik - Codename, 28

“The dominating majority of people on the Maidan and those fighting in Eastern Ukraine today are average Ukrainians that have nothing to do with fascism, nationalism or anything like that. It is merely an attempt to protect their right to dignity, freedom, justice, choice, pressure on the government, and now – to life.�

Anna Korbut, 29

Since the war which killed nearly five thousand and displaced almost half a million people started, the Pravi Sector has been sending its troops or ‘warriors’ to fight a separatist insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, mainly in Donetsk, a coal mining region called Donbas. They do not have the support from the government; therefore they depend on donations from supporters. Many volunteers are responsible for collecting money, food and medical supplies and fighting equipment. The guns they get from hunters, buy with donation money or take from the enemy.The only thing they get from the government is permission - almost in secret - to use a military facility from Soviet times in Desna, 75 km from Kiev.

In early October I spent two days with 80 volunteer soldiers in Desna, where they were training to fight the war. Most of them did not speak a word of English or at least they pretended they didn’t. Along with me came some bad news from the front line.

Two of their soldiers had died a few hours before in the Donetsk airport region. One was 36 years old and the other one was only 19. After learning this news, many people didn’t feel like talking to anyone, especially to a foreign journalist, like myself.

Every-day meal at Desna camp - with extra tuna.

Two men were the ones that walked me through their way of thinking and working together. One, codenamed Tanchik, at the age of 28, with a 6-year-old son and living with his partner, was a cyber sports commentator earning four times the minimum wage - a total of 206,40£. He decided to quit his job and fight for the future of his son. In late September he started a 2 months training in Desna so he would be prepared to go to the East this winter.

The other one, Sever - also a codename – was 21 years old and his story is more delicate. He went from being an electronic engineer to a National Guard soldier, to a deserter to a Pravi Sector fighter.

After being trained, he went to Donbas on July and satyed there for the next three months. His pride of being there did not last long. He took part in a short documentary called Biйна за свій рахунок (‘war at his own expense’) which shows how unprepared and bankrupted the National Guard is.

Soldiers had to buy helmets, bulletproof vests, boots and even medical supplies with their own money. In some places there was even lack of shelter. All this might look disturbing, but perhaps the most harrowing part was the relationship between soldiers and officials. Many of the high ranks were in their positions because they had close ties with politicians of the new established government in Kiev.

Sever explained to me that many officials drank a lot and would send soldiers into suicide patrols in areas that were constantly the target of shelling. He described a situation where officials were drunk, had an argument and two of the soldiers who ended up being shot and died. It was that day that decided to no longer be part of the group. He fled to Kiev to join the Pravi Sector.

A wedding company donated this personnel transportation truck which was used as a “just Married” vehicle for clients.

Trust is important you know. We don’t always have good equipment and sometimes you see people training in sports shoes, but I trust these guys [his Pravi Sector friends] with my life and that makes me a more confident and efficient warrior.

Sever - Codename, 21

The reality of this whole conflict is very complex and far from its end. The Kiev government once thought it would be an easy victory, however, the rebels are well trained and armed. Another issue that slows down any progress of the Ukrainian National Guard is that the local Donbas people who are not involved in this conflict are now supporters of the rebels as lately, Ukraine’s central government has stopped paying wages to public servers in the occupied territories.

At the age of 28, Berkut – an ironic reference to the Riot Police of previous governments in Ukraine - he is the youngest Commander in Pravi Sector.

The new elected parliament and the President, Petro Poroshenko, will try to solve the conflict through negotiating talks. However Pravi Sector and other nationalists groups have made it clear that they won’t accept any territorial loss. Some even plan on getting Crimea back to Ukrainian territory.

No matter what the output of this whole crisis will be, all sides will be losers. The costs of lives and money are the most visible losses, but the scared souls will bleed for decades. The bitterness of war is now rooted in this generation and will be remembered as long as they live.

An art piece making reference to Yulia Tymoshenko , a main symbol of Yanukovich’s opposition and resistence.

Children attending a rally in Kiev in early May.

Art related to the uprising became popular among schools.

Š Felipe Paiva 2014

felipepaivaphoto.com | fel_paiva@hotmail.com