generalspeaking

Fighting Like Cowboys

"We were fighting like cowboys in the Wild West with antiquated weapons."
"[When Kyiv began issuing proper weapons] we learned to use these weapons by going onto the Internet. That's how we took a crash course in defending ourselves."
"Kitchen appliances are harder to use than old Soviet weapons. They may seem primitive but they are easy to use and effective."
"Old weapons that no longer function when you need them, defensive weapons that fail you on the battlefield and a lack of expertise in warfare and tactical manoeuvres. We don't even have adequate knowledge of the medical services needed on the battlefield."
"Canada has one resource no other country has -- you have military instructors who actually speak Ukrainian."
"Internet training is not going to win this war or learning it on the battlefield when it is too late."
"We have changed as a nation dramatically in the last few months. Sadly, yes, now we have learned we have to fight to kill and die for what we believe in. It's a reality that, unfortunately, is necessary."
"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not just want the eastern Donbass -- what he really wants is the heart of Ukraine, he wants to conquer Kyiv."
Tetiana Chornovol, Ukrainian patriot, Member of Parliament

When Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited Ottawa in September he asked for war materiel, as he did when he was in Washington. While Canada's government has offered non-lethal military aid, along with funding and unqualified support for Ukraine's survival battle against Moscow's illegal, militaristic annexation strategy, Ottawa stated that no military weapons would be forthcoming. Instead, the coalition of NATO nations, the EU and North America would raise sanctions against Russian interests.

Tetiana Chornovol, once a journalist, an anti-corruption crusader, a Euromaidan protest leader, a temporary member of a volunteer brigade fighting for Ukraine's future as a sovereign country, now an elected parliamentarian thought it might be useful to visit Canada to personally and forcefully tell the story of Ukraine's anguish and torment, foisted upon the country by a newly-imperialistic Russia. She and her husband had protested the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych and it was their determination along with others to remove him from Kyiv that motivated Moscow's malicious response.

At the height of the Euromaidan protests on Christmas Day, just after she had published yet another story of yet another corrupt government official, her vehicle was forced off the road, and she was dragged from her car. There, at the side of the road, she was beaten unmercifully and left for dead. That beating, she now says, might have left her "physically beaten, but not psychologically broken", and the mother of two young children's continued dedication to the cause of her country makes that abundantly evident.

She has paid a dreadful price for her dedication to Ukraine. One that went well beyond a vicious beating. On August 10, her husband, Mykola Berezovyi, sent her a text message reading: "Storming Ilovaysk. Losing the connection, so don't worry. I love you." She did worry, for all that it might help the situation, and responded to his message with one of her own: "I love you very much. Hold on." Now, in retelling the story of her pain and devestation, she said: "It turns out I was writing to a dead man."

For the next text message she opened, after responding to her husband's, was from Ukraine's Ministry of the Interior, informing her that her husband had been killed in action. The action he was involved in was with a volunteer brigade intent on pushing back the advances made by pro-Russian rebels and their Russian supporters who had taken much of the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine's cities and towns, upon which success they claimed themselves to be independent of Kyiv, no longer part of Ukraine, edging toward knitting the area into the Russian fabric of Novorossiya.


In Kyiv, as a parliamentarian, she has been tasked to work with the new government on initiatives to combat corruption. Her husband and his unit were in conflict with the rebels, to retake the rail hub of Ilovaysk. His unit marched behind an armoured vehicle, when the vehicle broke down just as they were advancing, and the gun atop the vehicle malfunctioned, leaving them vulnerable to enemy snipers. As her husband ran to the aid of a fallen fighter he was hit as well in the leg. Another of their group helped both injured fighters from the line of fire, but the first man was struck again fatally.

There was nothing in the way of a field hospital for these fighters to rely upon. It took little time before her husband, whom no one appeared to realize was seriously injured, bled to death. Her visit to Canada had a distinct purpose. She was speaking on behalf of the Kyiv government and also on behalf of those who like her husband, are fighting for their homeland. The need for modern and heavier weapons is acute, if they are to successfully counter the arms flowing from Russia to the rebels.

If not weapons, then know-how. Ukrainian Canadians who served overseas with the Canadian military are in her crosshairs. She has appealed to those Canadians fluent in Ukrainian with military training to help. To share their battlefield strategy knowledge and the tactics tried and true. That, beyond teaching those serving to defend their country from Russian invasion, how to use weapons to their best advantage, professionally, with expertise.

Invited to travel to Canada by the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women and Ukrainian doctors hoping to promote a project that would realize its purpose in treating injured soldiers and those hurt during the Euromaidan protests. She is, needless to say, in full support of the Canadian Ukrainian enterprise. And though appreciative of the opportunity to tell of her experiences in the last year, to convey to her audience the urgency and the need, she was anxious to return to her country to help it through the turmoil roiling it.

Labels: Aggression, Canada, Conflict, Russia, Secession, Ukraine

posted by Pieface @ Monday, December 22, 2014