Intégration de milices antiséparatistes dans la Garde nationale ukrainienne
Civilian Donbas Battalion forming National Guard unit
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/civilian-donbas-battalion-forming-national-guard-unit-350068.html
Six days after losing five members in an ambush sprung by a superior force of Russian-backed separatists, the Donbas Battalion, a quasi-military group consisting mostly of Donetsk and Luhansk oblast civilians is forming into a National Guard special-purpose battalion to officially join the government’s counter-terrorism operation, the Interior Ministry announced on May 29 after reaching an agreement with its leader Semyon Semenchenko.
The unit will comprise of 120-150 men, the usual size of a rota, or a troop company. They will undergo training at the National Guard training base in Novi Petrivtsi, a village 10 kilometers north of Kyiv. Their task will be to “conduct anti-subversive and anti-terrorist” activities in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, the Interior Ministry stated. This will include guarding the Ukrainian-Russian border to prevent “organized groups of terrorists from breaking through from the Russian Federation,” it added.
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“The creation of a special Donbas battalion at the National Guard of Ukraine is an example of effective cooperation between patriotic citizens and public authorities,” said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.