New York Times: Rebellernas Ansikte
Mycket bra artikel i New York Times om de ryskspråkiga rebellerna i östra Ukraina. Skiljer sig markant från den enfaldiga och ensidiga propaganda som svenska media helt okritiskt kablar ut:
Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/europe/behind-the-masks-in-ukraine-many-faces-of-rebellion.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3
New York Times korrespondent C. J. Chivers har träffat soldaterna i det 12:e kompaniet i sydöstra armén, som försvarar Slovjansk. Han börjar med att intervjua deras befälhavare Yuri, en tidigare sovjetisk elidsoldat och veteran från kriget i Afghanistan:
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.
Även de andra soldaterna i 12:e kompaniet är mestadels veteraner:
The rebels of the 12th Company appear to be Ukrainians but, like many in the region, have deep ties to and affinity for Russia. They are veterans of the Soviet, Ukrainian or Russian Armies, and some have families on the other side of the border. Theirs is a tangled mix of identities and loyalties.
Det i svenska media ofta upprepade påståendet att de skulle vara ryska agenter får rebellerna att dra på smilbanden:
Throughout the week, as Ukrainian soldiers sometimes pressed closer, he chuckled at the claims by officials in Kiev and the West that his operations had been guided by Russian military intelligence officers.
There is no Russian master, he said. “We have no Muscovites here,” he said. “I have experience enough.”
That experience, he and his fighters say, includes four years as a Soviet small-unit commander in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the 1980s.
The 119 fighters he said he leads, who appear to range in age from their 20s to their 50s, all speak of prior service in Soviet or Ukrainian infantry, airborne, special forces or air-defense units.
Som rebellerna själva påpekar skulle de ha mycket bättre utrustning om de var utsända av den ryska armén:
Several fighters shook their heads at the idea that they had been paid by Russia, by oligarchs or by anybody else.
“This is not a job,” said one fighter, Dmitry. “It is a service.”
Moreover, if Russia’s intelligence services had been helping them, they said, they would have new weapons, not the dated arms visible at their checkpoints and stored in the base where they sleep. During the fighting on Friday, two of the fighters carried hunting shotguns, and the heaviest visible weapon was a sole rocket-propelled grenade.
Rebellerna har också stöd bland lokalbefolkningen, konstaterar Chivers:
There were, however, indicators of local support.
One afternoon, a crowd labored to build a barricade and a bunker beside a bridge over a canal to the city’s west.
At the 12th Company’s main base, the home of Tanya and her husband, Lev, residents visited to donate food: homemade pastries, slabs of salted pork fat, a vat of borscht, bags of fresh green onions, jars of pickled vegetables and fruits.
“To the guys in Kiev, we are separatists and terrorists,” Yuri said. “But to the people here, we are defenders and protectors.”
