Rogue Ukrainian volunteer unit refuses order to disband
2015-06-19
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Members of a Ukrainian volunteer battalion have begun fortifying positions against a feared assault by Ukrainian ministry of interior troops after it was ordered Tuesday to disband, according to Russian language news websites.
The "Tornado" Battalion, which is based in northern Lugansk, was ordered by the Ukrainian government to disband after a number of its members and commanders were charged with serious crimes in the conduct of their activities in Lugansk.
A second volunteer battalion, the "Chernigov" Battalion also was ordered to disband, but news accounts say that only Tornado has refused to comply with the demand of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Chernigov commanders also are accused to participating in the smuggling of coal.
A total of seven members of the "Tornado" Battalion, including a police company commander identified as Ruslan Onishchenko, were detained in several Ukrainian cities including Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov and Severodonetsk and transported to Kiev presumably to face trial.
According to a late news item posted on Russian reserve FSB Colonel Igor Girkin's website, Onishchenko is in intensive care after being beaten nearly to death, according to remarks made by Tornado deputy commander Nikolay Cukur.
A total of 12 men from the Tornado battalion were detained in total, with two released, and two unidentified men other than Onishchenko were being treated for wounds sustained in beatings. The story did not elaborate who, or which agency beat Onishchenko.
Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine and Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios said that Onishchenko gave orders several times for his charges to commit crimes including physical assault, kidnapping, rape, robbery and torture of both civilians and members of the Tornado Battalion in Lisichansk, in Lugansk.
Chief among problems with the battalion are charges that its members bought and resold coal from the rebels in Lugansk, a charge against the rebel civilian leadership which led to a low level civil war in Lugansk and Donetsk, and cost the lives of several Cossacks loyal to the rebels. Several Cossack units once considered loyal to the rebels were disbanded as well, accompanied by military assaults when those units refused to disband.
Russian military journalist and analyst Boris Rozhin said on Wednesday that the Tornado Battalion consisted of felons released from prison, and had been operating in northern Lugansk since the very start of the hot phase of the civil war in southeastern Ukraine last summer, 2014.
According to Rozhin, Onishchenko went to Kiev seeking to "legalize" the kickbacks he had been paying to unidentified Ukrainian officials, which was when the Ukrainian Interior Ministry is said to have investigated. Rozhin claims the Ukrainian government was well aware of the smuggling and the kickbacks.
The latest, according to two news reports in korrespondent.net, are that the area around the base of Tornado Battalion was mined in anticipation against a general military assault by Ukrainian forces executing a court ordered search warrant. The news reports suggest that Ukrainian interior ministry officials are negotiating with members of the battalion to end the standoff peacefully.
Ukrainian Colonel Andrey Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian ministry of defense denied that the Ukrainian military was planning any military operations against the remaining members of the battalion.
Fighting in Donetsk, Lugnask
Ukrainian media said that rebels launched a pair of infantry assaults supported by mortars on Ukrainian positions in Marinka on Thursday morning, but those attacks were driven back. Losses for the Ukrainians totaled three dead and 14 wounded.
According to a news report in regnum.ru, Colonel Lysenko said that the rebel forces brought heavy artillery closer to the front and commenced shelling Ukrainian positions in Marinka for the rest of the day.
According to data supplied by the rebel government in Donetsk, reported Ukrainian artillery attacks have dropped dramatically since last weekend, when nearly 300 ceasefire violations were reported by both sides. As of Thursday night, reported violations for the Ukrainian side have dropped to eight total for the whole of Donetsk.
Regions reporting Ukrainian artillery are western Donetsk city suburbs, including at the Putilovsky bridge, the airport, Kievskiy district and Spartak, and in Gorlovka.
Lysenko said that rebels violated the ceasefire a total of 40 times, mostly around Artemovsk, where rebel 152mm artillery and mortars struck targets in Artemovsk. Lysenko also said that the rebel artillery firing was originating from Zolotoye, further south.
Artemovsk is a top command and logistical position for Ukrainian forces operating in north central Lugansk and northeastern Donetsk.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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