Protesters in Ukraine remind us of the priceless benefits of being EU members

[Hammer2722]

Timoshonka is absolutely the same as all the other professional thiefs, er, politicians in Ukraine. So she should serve her term along with Yanukovich and others.
Do you know why Yanukovich put her into prison? He did not like competition.

Yes, and if you put all the Ukrainian politicians in prison you have no govt. Ukraine is corrupt to the core just like Russia.....

[Faux Pas]

In fact I don't have any aim of prooving anything.Everyone in Ukraine in the middle of events knows it's fact, it was even not hidden. As well as the results of these "works" are not hidden, I mean new cars bought etc. as the salaries on Maydan were really nice, especially for those, who managed to be paid from both parts.

You obviously can not provide any proof of statements.

"Everyone in Ukraine in the middle of events knows"  doesn't prove diddly no matter how much you "think" you know. I know virtually nothing but, I'm now convinced I know more than you 

[jone]

I have one thing to say and then I'll shut up: (NAH, not really.  When have I ever shut up?)

I saw people running after the police (Berkut) that were extremely angry and willing to get killed to attack them.  These people were not there to get paid.  No one, who is getting paid 1000 hryvna a day is stupid enough to run after armed police with baseball bats. 

There is a disconnect between an active protester and (maybe) a passive paid protester.

[JayH]

26 February 2014 Last updated at 17:06
Ukraine Crimea: Rival rallies confront one another

The BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from the police cordon separating rival rallies in Crimea's regional capital Simferopol
Continue reading the main story
Ukraine crisis


Pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow protesters have scuffled in Ukraine's Crimea region, as tensions increase following last week's ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.

One person died, probably from a heart attack, during the confrontation outside parliament in Simferopol.

Only a police cordon separated the rallies - one pro-Russian, the other involving Crimean Tatars and people backing Ukraine's change of government.

Meanwhile, Mr Yanukovych has been put on the international wanted list.

The fugitive president is accused of being behind the deaths of more than 100 protesters at the hands of riot police.

But despite rumours that Mr Yanukovych - who fled Kiev at the weekend - is now in Russia, deputy general prosecutor Mykhailo Holomsha told reporters: "We have information indicating Yanukovych is still in Ukraine."

Continue reading the main story
Crimea

Map showing the location of Crimea
Autonomous republic within Ukraine
Transferred from Russia in 1954
Ethnic Russians - 58.5%*
Ethnic Ukrainians - 24.4%*
Crimean Tatars - 12.1%*
*Source: Ukraine census 2001
A new cabinet is due to be unveiled in the capital Kiev later on Wednesday.

It is widely believed that a number of activists from Kiev's main protest camp, the Maidan, will be offered ministerial roles.

Any new cabinet will face a daunting set of challenges, with many areas of government in Ukraine needing urgent reform, the BBC's David Stern in Kiev reports.

In a separate development, the interim authorities have disbanded the elite Berkut police units, which are blamed for the deaths of dozens of protesters in the Ukrainian capital last week.

'Provocation'
Thousands of people took part in the two rival rallies in Crimea's administrative capital ahead of a planned session of the region's parliament, where the issue of Crimea's status had been initially expected to be raised.

Continue reading the main story
At the scene

image of Daniel Sandford
Daniel Sandford
BBC News, Simferopol
The violence in Simferopol illustrates the complexity of the situation in Crimea - a situation made worse by the current power vacuum on the southern Ukrainian peninsula.

Angry Russian Crimeans are denouncing the new government in Kiev, who they fear will undermine their links to Russia. We even saw them chanting "Berkut", the name of the riot police who killed so many protesters last week.

But today, Crimea's Tatars turned up in force to show their support for the new government in Kiev. That's because of their long-running suspicion of Russia. They were the original occupants of Crimea. They were first invaded by the Russians in the 18th Century, and then kicked out by Stalin in the 1940s, only returning to Crimea in the 1990s.

However, Crimean parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Konstantinov later said MPs would not discuss any secession by Crimea, which currently enjoys autonomy within Ukraine.

Mr Konstantinov described as "provocation" earlier media reports on the issue.

In Simferopol, Crimean Tatars chanted "Glory to Ukraine!", while the pro-Russian activists responded with "Russia!"

A body of an elderly man was found during the rallies, Crimea's health ministry said in a statement.

It said the unidentified man had no signs of injuries, and had probably died from a heart attack.

After the rallies, Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov called on activists - including ethnic Russians - to form self-defence units to prevent any violence or provocations, Ukrainska Pravda news website reports.

Crimea - where ethnic Russians are in a majority - was transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954.

Ethnic Ukrainians loyal to Kiev and Muslim Tatars - whose animus towards Russia stretches back to Stalin's deportations during World War II - have formed an alliance to oppose any move back towards Moscow.

The change of government in Kiev has raised questions over the future of Russia's naval bases in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, the lease for which was extended until 2042 by Mr Yanukovych.

Most experts believe the new leadership will not push for the withdrawal of the Russian fleet, as this could further threaten Ukraine's internal stability as well as the country's fragile relations with Russia, the BBC's Ilya Abishev reports.

A statement issued by three former Ukrainian presidents on Wednesday - Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko - condemned what it said was Russian interference in Crimean politics.

'Serious threat'
Also on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a snap drill to test the combat readiness of troops in central and western Russia, near the border with Ukraine.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26354705

[justme100]

I know virtually nothing but, I'm now convinced I know more than you 

Please remain in your dreams as long as you wish.It is really evident you are ignorant of real events not only in Ukraine, but your own country as well.

[Anotherkiwi]

http://tsn.ua/politika/suddyu-timoshenko-kiryeyeva-ne-mozhut-znayti-336721.html
TSN News Ukraine / News Ukraine
Page preview: tsn.ua/politika/suddyu-timoshenko-kiryeyeva-ne-mozhut-znayti-336721.html
Follow community
Judge Tymoshenko Ryreeva can not find
image.tsn.ua/media/images2/original/Nov2013/383887852.jpg
Ukrainian files
 Kirieiev went on vacation and did not appear at the court hearing
 Judge Rodion Kireyev who sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison in 2011, did not appear to work. As it turned out after the release Tymoshenko Kirieiev disappeared.
has learned, on 25 February Ryreeva was scheduled 10 hearings. However chambers was empty. "Kirieiev on vacation. come back when - I do not know" - said " Today, "the assistant referee. As it turned out, give a certificate of the judge and the lawyers have already begun said. They do not rule out that the former prime minister will seek punishment for Ryreeva. Read more: Kirieiev "bumped into science" and writing a thesis under the direction of Mykola Azarov "First, it is logical, but not revenge.: Any evil must be punished . Already a decision of the European Court that it acted illegally. Tymoshenko While the application was, but most likely it would be. Kireev I was interested. impression that he went somewhere last week "- lawyer Aleksandr Timoshenko Plakhotniuk. A head of the High Qualification Commission of Judges Games Samsin said that over the past 2 weeks received about 100 complaints about the work Ryreeva that is checked. previously reported, after Yulia Tymoshenko scandalous Judge Rodion Kireev judge addicts and car thieves mayonnaise.

Thank you, JayH, but please translate it into English!  I mean, "scandalous Judge Rodion Kireev judge addicts and car thieves mayonnaise."  Really? 

[Faux Pas]

Please remain in your dreams as long as you wish.It is really evident you are ignorant of real events not only in Ukraine, but your own country as well.

Yeah obviously because everyone in Ukraine knows, huh? 

justme, you are what we refer to as a Sheeple

[JayH]

Really -- so many ridiculous comments here that deny the facts.It is the equivalent of the deniers of  major WW2 events who just refuse to believe the evidence-equally silly comments.
The Russian propaganda and  the then official Ukrainian TV and news pumping out that type of rubbish has affected some people brains permanently it seems.
Perhaps they can deal; with the paid thugs of the former regime running around stealing,bashing, vandalising anything in their path-- with the police complicit-- and yes-they were paid by the government! Or the paid bonuses for Berkut in Kiev-- the reality is the documents and proof that it was the previous regime responsible will be fortcoming-- and not some ridiculous rumour.

Some  words from someone on the spot- and interesting link-


"I want to appeal to people who think that the maidan is not right that any troops not to blame, that we are all "maydanutye." This site has a lot of information about overclocking Maidan, that was planned and how it should have happened, raised a large pile of documents specified who devised the orders received and signed. Is that enough? Why nobody has caught? http://www.moskal.in.ua/index.php      "

[justme100]

Yeah obviously because everyone in Ukraine knows, huh? 

justme, you are what we refer to as a Sheeple

and you show all the signs of what we refer to as лошок

[JayH]

Thank you, JayH, but please translate it into English!  I mean, "scandalous Judge Rodion Kireev judge addicts and car thieves mayonnaise."  Really? 

Judge did a runner-- you need mayonaise on that?

[Anotherkiwi]

Judge did a runner-- you need mayonaise on that?

We know that all FSUP need mayonnaise on everything - but putting it on car thieves and addicts is a new one on me!

[Slumba]

Justme, are you planning to leave Ukraine?  It is likely that there will be more violence in the future, upheaval, financial problems, etc.

Could you get a Russian passport and go to Russia, for instance?

(I have a friend from Dnepro who tells me her family wants to leave and go to Russia; I am curious if it is only her family, or other people who think the same way).

[jone]

Nothing like saber rattling on the border of your neighbor. 

[justme100]

Justme, are you planning to leave Ukraine?  It is likely that there will be more violence in the future, upheaval, financial problems, etc.

Could you get a Russian passport and go to Russia, for instance?

(I have a friend from Dnepro who tells me her family wants to leave and go to Russia; I am curious if it is only her family, or other people who think the same way).

I will leave Ukraine only if there will be war here, in Crimea. And yes, with these new recent laws from Russia I can get their passport. All people who have direct relatives in Russia got this right now. And yes, many families here are concidering this opportunity now.

[BillyB]

with these new recent laws from Russia I can get their passport.

With more Ukrainians getting Russian passports, it give Russia the right to go in Ukraine and protect their people's interest.


As for protestors getting paid, it's been going on for over a decade. Anybody ever go to Kiev and see bus loads of people protesting? Someone had to pay for the buses besides protestors. When Yanukovych was elected president, there were bus loads of people travelling from city to city to vote multiple times. Both sides paid protestors in the past even before this crisis began. But based on the magnitude of the protests this time, there is no way everyone could be paid. People want real change. They may not know exactly what they're getting into by getting involved with Europe but they do know exactly what their getting away from. People want a better life and prosperity for Ukraine and they weren't getting it with the recent government.

[Misha]

up to 1000 grivnas per day.

Okay, then you would have had at least 10,000 people being paid $100 per day or $1million per day over three months. Are we to believe that the United States State Department doled out close to $100 million to finance all of this? Clearly it wasn't the Ukrainian state paying for this, and I doubt the oligarchs would have had such an interest in a revolution that might consume them as well...

[JayH]

Russia and NATO to face off over Ukraine
Russia has ordered units in its western borderlands to begin a snap combat drills in reaction to the fall of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) speaks with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu

By Roland Oliphant, Simferopol8:41PM GMT 26 Feb 2014
Tensions on the Crimean peninsular soared have after Vladimir Putin put the Russian army on high alert and Nato officials warned they would back the “inviolability of [Ukraine’s] frontiers”.
The flurry of sabre rattling over the future of post-revolutionary Ukraine brought tensions between Russia and the West to a height not seen since the 2008 war between Russian and Georgia.
It came as there were unconfirmed reports that Viktor Yanukovych, the former president ousted from power by protesters last weekend who is now wanted by Ukraine’s authorities for mass murder, had taken refuge at a luxury sanatorium just outside Moscow.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered units in Russia’s Western military district - which borders Ukraine - to begin a series of snap combat readiness drills, beginning on Wednesday afternoon.
The drill would “check the troops’ readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation’s military security”, he said in a statement. It would involve around 150,000 army, air force and navy personnel.

Moscow also said it was “carefully watching what is happening in Crimea”, taking measures to ensure the security of the facilities and arsenals of its Black Sea naval fleet, based in the city of Sebastopol.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, quickly responded by warning Russia “to be very careful in the judgements that it makes”, adding: “We are not looking for confrontation. But we are making it clear that every country should respect the territorial integrity here, the sovereignty of Ukraine.
“Russia has said it would do that and we think it’s important that Russia keeps its word.”
Later he added it would be a “grave mistake” for Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine.
“For a country that has spoken out so frequently ... against foreign intervention in Libya, in Syria, and elsewhere, it would be important for them to heed those warnings as they think about options in the sovereign nation of Ukraine,” he said.
“I don’t think there should be any doubt whatsoever that any kind of military intervention that would violate the sovereign territorial integrity of Ukraine would be a huge - a grave mistake,” he added.
“If there were any kind of decision like that, I do not think that’s a cheap decision. I think it’s a very expensive decision.”
Mr Kerry also held out the possibility of providing $1 billion in US loan guarantees for Ukraine, as well as US budget support for the former Soviet republic but said no decisions had been made.
Meanwhile Nato defence ministers warned that they considered Ukraine’s future to be “key to Euro-Atlantic security” and assured the new government in Kiev that the alliance would back its “sovereignty, independence [and] territorial integrity.”
“A sovereign, independent and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to Euro-Atlantic security,” they said in a statement.
The comments appear to be a direct response to sabre rattling by high-ranking Russian officials, including Dmitry Medevedev, the prime minister, who said earlier this week that the revolution in Ukraine posed “a real threat to our interests”.
Tensions have been building since Ukraine’s pro-European protest movement ousted the Moscow-friendly Mr Yanukovych as president on Saturday.
While many throughout the country see the revolution as an uprising against a corrupt and discredited elite, Russian-speaking Ukranians and ethnic Russians - many of whom live in the south and east of the country - are alarmed by what they see as nationalist and Russo-phobic elements among the groups that have seized control in Kiev.
Russia has warned it may act to protect its citizens in the Russian-majority region of Crimea, where it maintains a Navy base and a 25,000-strong garrison.
The new government in Kiev continued to consolidate its grip on power, with the acting president Oleksandr Turchynov assuming command of the armed forces.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former foreign minister, was proposed as the country’s new prime minister. A list of suggested cabinet members was read out to a crowd of revolutionaries in Independence Square, allowing them to voice their approval or disapproval of each name. It will go before Parliament for formal confirmation on Thursday.
Mr Yatsenyuk, 39, is the parliamentary leader of the Fatherland party loyal to Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who was defeated at the last election and subsequently imprisoned. However, he was discredited in the eyes of many protesters because he tried to negotiate a settlement with Mr Yanukovych and signed an agreement with him last week.
Late on Tuesday night parliament disbanded the Berkut, a special riot police unit that is blamed for much of the violence against protesters during the two-and-a-half months of street confrontations that led to Mr Yanukovych’s overthrow.
That move heightened fears in Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine, however. The anti-revolutionary mayor of Sebastopol in the Crimea region has promised to retain the unit as part of his municipal police force.
Tensions in Crimea itself reached new heights when at least one person died and seven were injured in a stampede after rival demonstrators clashed in Simferopol, the regional capital.
Several thousand supporters of the new government, almost all male, waved light-blue Crimean Tatar flags and chanted “Crimea is not Russia” and “Bandits out” as they converged on the regional parliament on Wednesday to protest at what they said was an attempt by the assembly to vote for secession from Ukraine.
They faced off with thousands of other demonstrators bearing Russian tricolours who cried “Crimea is Russia” and “Glory to the Berkut”.
Although leaders of both sides shared a podium to appeal for calm, they struggled to control the crowds as the gathering descended into an ill-tempered pushing match. Several Tatar protesters forced their way into the ground floor of the parliament building to demand a meeting with pro-Russian law makers.
The pro-Russian speaker of the regional parliament denied that secession was under discussion, and accused members of the regional government of spreading rumours about secession “aimed at discrediting the assembly and undermining its legitimacy”.
Many Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority descended from the Mongol armies that conquered the region in 13th century, have allied with pro-revolutionary Ukrainians loyal to the new authorities in Kiev.
Tatar resentment of Moscow dates back to the Second World War, when Stalin deported the entire nation to Central Asia as punishment for allegedly allying with the invading Germans, and sent Russians to live there instead.
Zevdjet Kurtumerov, a Tatar protester, sadi: “Moscow’s attitude is complete imperialism: wherever they put their boots, it is Russia. But this is our Ukraine, and we want to keep it.”
But ethnic Russians, who account for about 60 per cent of the population on the peninsula, see Russia as a guarantor of stability and see the Tatars as a pushing an essentially racist agenda.
“They want Crimea to be a Tatar republic. Why not Greek, or Ukrainian, or Russian? No, they want it to be Tatar, and kick out everyone else who lives here,” said Yuri Tomshki, 50, a former soldier and taxi-driver who was wearing the orange and black ribbon of St George, a symbol of the Russian military valour.
“I am Ukrainian by citizenship, but Russian by nationality, and personally I think Crimea should be part of Russia. The minority cannot rule the majority.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10663971/Russia-and-NATO-to-face-off-over-Ukraine.html

[jone]

I will leave Ukraine only if there will be war here, in Crimea. And yes, with these new recent laws from Russia I can get their passport. All people who have direct relatives in Russia got this right now. And yes, many families here are concidering this opportunity now.

Why don't you just marry some good looking guy on the forum here?  I can name a couple that are available and nice.  Then you could move to his country or make a home together in Russia.

[JayH]

Russia War Games Over Ukraine Prompt US Warning
KIEV, Ukraine February 26, 2014 (AP)
By KARL RITTER and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press
 
Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake."

Vladimir Putin's announcement of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest leaders named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the pro-Russian president went into hiding.

The new government, which is expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday, will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse. Its fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital last week.

In Kiev's Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement against Yanukovych, the interim leaders who seized control after he disappeared proposed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country's new prime minister. The 39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010, and is widely viewed as a technocratic reformer who enjoys the support of the U.S.

Across Ukraine, the divided allegiances between Russia and the West were on full display as fistfights broke out between pro- and anti-Russia protesters in the strategic Crimea peninsula.

Amid the tensions, Putin put the military on alert for massive exercises involving most of the military units in western Russia, and announced measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

The maneuvers will involve some 150,000 troops, 880 tanks, 90 aircraft and 80 navy ships, and are intended to "check the troops' readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

The move prompted a sharp rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine.

"Any kind of military intervention that would violate the sovereign territorial integrity of Ukraine would be a huge, a grave mistake," Kerry told reporters in Washington. "The territorial integrity of Ukraine needs to be respected."

In delivering the message, Kerry also announced that the Obama administration was planning $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine and would consider additional direct assistance for the former Soviet republic.

Still, Kerry insisted that U.S. policy was not aimed at reducing Russia's influence in Ukraine or other former Soviet republics, but rather to see their people realize aspirations for freedom in robust democracies with strong economies.

"This is not 'Rocky IV'," Kerry said, referring to the 1985 Sylvester Stallone film in which an aging American boxer takes on a daunting Soviet muscleman. "It is not a zero-sum game. We do not view it through the lens of East-West, Russia-U.S. or anything else. We view it as an example of people within a sovereign nation who are expressing their desire to choose their future. And that's a very powerful force."

Russia denied the military maneuvers had any connection to the situation in Ukraine, but the massive show of force appeared intended to show both the new Ukrainian authorities and the West that the Kremlin was ready to use all means to protect its interests.

[Ade]

Okay, then you would have had at least 10,000 people being paid $100 per day or $1million per day over three months. Are we to believe that the United States State Department doled out close to $100 million to finance all of this? Clearly it wasn't the Ukrainian state paying for this, and I doubt the oligarchs would have had such an interest in a revolution that might consume them as well...

Without speculating on where the money came from, $100 million is a drop in the bucket compared to, say, the billions in aid Ukraine is requesting for instance, or the amount embezzled by the fine leaders of this country over the years, not to mention that it's a paltry price to pay to help fund controlling an entire country.

[lordtiberius]

To the Putinists posting on this thread,  how much money was paid to these folks?



Disgusting . . .

[Faux Pas]

Without speculating on where the money came from, $100 million is a drop in the bucket compared to, say, the billions in aid Ukraine is requesting for instance, or the amount embezzled by the fine leaders of this country over the years, not to mention that it's a paltry price to pay to help fund controlling an entire country.

True, and it could be anyone that put the mythical $100 million on the barrel for a protest and revolution. If it isn't a ground swell of patriots fed up with corruption, tyranny and pillage of the country's future. If your Putin, it's a lot cheaper than the 15 billion committed to keep them out of the EU when he can rule it as heavy handed as he does Russia and bathe in the country's coffers. If, and whom ever it was certainly expects a return on the investment. If payments were made, surely there's proof?

[JayH]

Getting paid to protest? Even if it did happen it was more likely paid to cover costs.

It pales into insignificence compared paying thugs to run amok on the street robbing,stealing,vandalising ,beating people up and the list goes on. Perhaps a mention of the payments to Berkut responsible for the murders of innocent people.

Those that see to rationalise the state murdering its own citizens are a disgrace to  humanity-- show some respect for those killed and injured--in the name of deposing a corrupt government.

So please--shut the  f..k up..!!

[lordtiberius]

http://twitter.com/euromaidan/status/438922074132738048/photo/1

Russian flag flies over the Crimean Rada

[JayH]

Police, civilian patrols work to restore public order to Kyiv's streets

Feb. 27, 2014, 8:11 a.m. | Kyiv — by Nataliya Trach

Civilian EuroMaidan people's self-defense units patrol outside a court in Kyiv's Podil district on Feb. 11. Also separate civil guard patrols have formed to keep the peace in Kyiv neighborhoods as police also return to duty following the Feb. 22 impeachment of Viktor Yanukovych as president.

Three ex-Ukrainian presidents blame Russia for meddling in Crimean affairs

Hundreds of men and women have joined civiliian patrols to keep the peace in Ukraine’s capital. They are helping separate units of EuroMaidan people's self-defense groups whose members -- wearing military fatigues, bulletproof vests and helmets, and armed with baseball bats and clubs -- are still on duty to protect and defend Kyiv.

With the changeover in government on Feb. 22, precipitated by the impeachment and fugitive flight of former President Viktor Yanukovych, the civilian patrols, EuroMaidan people's self-defense groups and police have gone from being in conflict with each other to trying to work together to prevent crime and violence.

It’s a monumental task, but thus far the new alliance seems to be working.

The new formations, combined with the fact that the public polices itself quite nicely most of the time, means that Kyiv has not descended into chaos. It’s not burning and most businesses are operating normally again. Moreover, judging by the number of people on the central streets even late at night, fears are not running high.

Police and security forces largely withdrew from the city on Feb. 22, following a violent week of clashes with protesters that left scores dead and hundreds injured. Their flight coincided with the vanishing act of Viktor Yanukovych, the disgraced former president who was impeached that same day and hasn’t been seen since.

Some police returned to the streets this week, although they are hugely outnumbered by self-defense members. In an effort to restore their image, they have begun cooperating with the volunteer guards.

Batkivshchyna Party lawmaker Arsen Avakov, who was appointed acting interior minister by parliament on Feb. 22, has made a series of changes in an attempt to improve the image of police, including disbanding the feared Berkut riot police. But those changes have thus far failed to restore trust in law enforcement.

Viktoriya Tyshchenko, a coordinator of the the civil guard units, says it was police who first approached her guards with the offer to jointly patrol Kyiv’s streets again, specifically to guard against potential provocations by titushkis, hired thugs loyal to the former government. But she said police were too slow in their offer, as titushkis had already fled the city.

“I’d like to know where they (police) were at the time when titushkis burned cars and smashed windows,” Tyshchenko said. According to her, there are several hundred volunteers in civil guard units in Kyiv, most of them are young men in their 30s and 40s.

“On one hand, police try to improve their image that’s why they patrol the streets with us,” says Artem Kononenko, a member of civic guard unit of Kyiv’s Solomyanka district. “On the other hand, police do not want to patrol the streets alone as they are afraid of people’s revenge (for their own or their colleagues’ wrongdoing during the protests).”

He said he had witnessed how some taxi drivers were ready to “lynch” traffic police officers, having recognized those who were extorting bribes from them months earlier.

Police car patrols now are fewer than before. In each district of Kyiv there around two police cars on patrol compared to some 40-50 civil car patrols at a time, civil guards say.

Oles Malyarevych, one of the coordinators of a civic self-defense unit in Kyiv’s Rusanivka district, said that despite their differences, civil guards need the help of police because the officers have the authority to detain suspicious passersby and to carry weapons.

Malyarevych praises the cooperation with the local police as “fruitful,” calling local police officers simply “ordinary guys.”

Over the last three days police and civil guards managed to detain four suspects – two local armed criminals that attempted an assault against a young lady, one armed titushka from Donetsk and a local thief who broke the window of a parked car in an attempt to steel a handbag, he said.

Kononenko from Solomyanka, on the contrary, believes that police still tend to behave as usual, avoiding their responsibilities when it comes to confronting their own.

“It’s clear that they (police) are demoralized,” he said. “Our task is to promote civil society and to make them (police) understand that the police have to serve the people.”

It’s not clear how long the civic guards will patrol and control the streets, but many say they are prepared to remain there until safety is ensured and the police start behaving more professionally.

“Before police provide public order we have a right to ensure our safety ourselves,” Malyarevych said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv/police-civilian-self-defense-units-work-to-restore-public-order-to-kyivs-streets-337637.html