With Russians on the doorstep, Ukrainians hear duty’s call
Recruiters seek volunteers for Ukraine’s new National Guard in the shadow of Kyiv’s Independence Square.
, Correspondent /
March 21, 2014
Members of a ‘Maidan’ self-defense battalion take part in weapons training at a Ukrainian Interior Ministry base near Kyiv on Monday. The first 500 volunteers arrived at the base for training to qualify for service in the newly created National Guard.
Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Kyiv, Ukraine
A group of men were already waiting for Lt. Col. Roman Nakonichye when he arrived at 9 a.m. to put out his small wooden table out on the cobbled sidewalk near Kyiv’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan.
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Some were engineers. Some taxi drivers. Two owned an eyeglass business. All wanted to sign up to fight for the motherland in Ukraine’s newly formed National Guard.
“You come to the Maidan and you feel it in your chest, patriotism is growing stronger, ever stronger. People feel like they never did,” says Vitaly Vasilyevich, a 30-year-old building drafter from Kyiv. “If not for us [volunteers], nobody will. If I don’t do it, who will?”
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In the eyes of many Ukrainians, the country is facing an existential crisis unprecedented in the 23 years since the Soviet collapse. Russian forces loom on the eastern border. Moscow has annexed the Black Sea peninsula and forced a humiliating withdrawal of Ukrainian troops. In the cities of Kharkiv and Donetsk, pro-Russian activists are suspected of fomenting violence to create a pretext for invasion. The 3-week-old technocratic government in Kyiv is struggling to stave off economic collapse.
Amid all this, Ukraine is experiencing a resurgence of pride and patriotism, a wellspring that emerged in the pitched street battles of the Maidan between young students and government security forces. Nearly three months of anti-government protests in Kyiv culminated in three days of mayhem one month ago that sent President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing from the country.
Russia moved to seize Crimea, the new government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced the creation of a National Guard. The interim government also increased the military budget with an emergency allotment of about $680 million.
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Various estimates put the size of Ukraine’s current, standing armed forces – Army, Navy, and Air Force – at between 160,000 and 190,000, with another 1 million active reservists. Military service is mandatory for men between 18 and 25, though many use deferments and exemptions to avoid it.
The National Guard, while still a work in progress, is intended to recruit another 20,000 volunteers. Organized under the auspices of the interior ministry, the first group of 500 volunteers began two weeks of basic training this week. After getting instruction in things like hand-to-hand combat, weapons maintenance, firing training, and field engineering techniques like digging fox holes, volunteers will serve mainly in a reserve capacity, deploying as needed to certain areas. Interior ministry officials say the deployment could include policing or even combat alongside regular troops.
More than 4,000 people have signed up since the law authorizing the guard was passed on March 13, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said this week.
“You will have the opportunity to defend the country, with the forces of the National Guard and the security forces,” Mr. Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting over the weekend.
Europe, but Putin won’t give that to us.”
Grigory Kulakov, who also signed up, expresses similar thoughts. Before he became an electrical engineer, Mr. Kulakov was a flight technician for helicopters during the 7 years he served in the Soviet army. He says he has younger brother who still lives in Crimea.
“It’s like Russia is a house guest who comes into and just starts taking things without asking,” he says. “Or like if your brother gives you a coat and then comes back to take it back, and then starts taking your shoes, and your hat, and your pants.”
“I need to defend the motherland,” he says.