Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion

NYTimes ^ | 5-3-2014 | CJ Chivers and NOAH SNEIDER

[tcrlaf]

The rebel leader spread a topographic map in front of a closed grocery store here as a Ukrainian military helicopter flew past a nearby hill. Ukrainian troops had just seized positions along a river, about a mile and a half away. The commander thought they might advance.

He issued orders with the authority of a man who had seen many battles. “Go down to the bridge and set up the snipers,” the leader, who gave only a first name, Yuri, said to a former Ukrainian paratrooper, who jogged away.

Yuri commands the 12th Company, part of the self-proclaimed People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a previously unknown and often masked rebel force that since early April has seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and, until Saturday, held prisoner a team of European military observers it accused of being NATO spies.

SNIP-

Yuri, who appears to be in his mid-50s, is in many ways an ordinary eastern Ukrainian of his generation. A military veteran, he survived the Soviet collapse to own a small construction business in Druzhkovka, about 15 miles south of here.

But his rebel stature has a particular root: He is also a former Soviet special forces commander who served in Afghanistan, a background that could make him both authentically local and a capable Kremlin proxy.

[SampleMan]

Same democratic process used in the USSR? Vote for us, or vote for us.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Yawn. The stupid Putinists who think that anyone who isn’t anti-American is a “Neo-Con’ [a Jew] will be the death of this country. They’re the recruits, joining the left in new useful idiocy.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Not everyone in Ukraine's military is sympathetic to the fascist Junta that seized power.

How many times now have we seen this asserted in this same thread? Tell me troll, is the Interim government of Ukraine the very same that was democratically elected in 2012, yes or no?

[Corporate Democrat]

You do know Putin got 99.5% of the vote in Chechnya right? And this was just 2 years ago.

Some democratic process they have over there.

[lodi90]

No talk in the article of any organization up from company level. Wonder why that is?

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They are disposable dupes. Like millions before them. Dead enders whose “leaders” have bugged out back to Donetsk and Russia leaving them as body count bait.

[lodi90]

You do know Putin got 99.5% of the vote in Chechnya right? And this was just 2 years ago. Some democratic process they have over there.

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Yep. And that vote was after this. Some of the armchair analysis here is so shallow these days from the Putinistas. I expect better from conservatives.

[wetphoenix]

~An amazing supply of AKs, Dragonovs, ammo and uniforms. And no 2A.~

You can buy all these crap online in Russia, pretty cheaply.
Uniform and most items available to a Russian specops, including semi-auto versions of their service small arms.

Spetsnaz outfit:
http://kamuflage.ru/odezhda-letnjaja.html

AKM:
http://dominator-arms.ru/goods/product/karabin-vpo-134-k-7-62-39-l-590.html

RPK machine gun:
http://dominator-arms.ru/goods/product/karabin-ma-ak-03-k-7-62h39.html

Tactical AK-based semi-auto 12 ga “French” Saiga shotgun (a version made by AK for a French SWAT):
http://dominator-arms.ru/goods/product/saiga-12k-taktika-040-03.html

All of the above are selling online inside Russia, and they probably could ship to Ukraine under Russian custom agreement (I wonder would EU allow trading guns online in Ukraine under their rules? Most of these toys are hughly illegal in Europe.)

I haven’t spend enough time to find Dragunov online, but you can buy it in any gunshop at about $1,500 there.