I
will post information about a Child Soldiers’ Organization in the United Armed
Forces of Novorossiya, known as Patriotic Donbass.
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The position in which
the soldier is portrayed is inspired from a photograph of a Russian unmarked
soldier, handing a young boy a kitten. Belogorsk.rf
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-monument-polite-people-crimea-invasion/27000320.html
May
07, 2015
Russia Unveils Monument
To 'Polite People' Behind Crimean Invasion
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The unveiling of the "polite
people" monument in Belogorsk on May 6.
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Russia's
first monument honoring the "polite people" behind last year's armed
annexation of Crimea has been erected in the Far Eastern city of Belogorsk.
Veterans, residents, and a phalanx of local officials gathered amid a May 6 snowfall for the unveiling of the life-size statue, which depicts a heavily armed, insignia-free soldier holding a cat.
The
monument, cast from 400 kilograms of Chelyabinsk iron, is reportedly based on
an image by TASS photographer Aleksandr Ryumin
of a soldier in Crimea handing an orange-and-white cat to a young boy.
A boy attending the Belogorsk unveiling was asked to pose with his arms outstretched toward the soldier, whose stance is otherwise suggestive of a man dumping a cat into a wastebasket.
Unlike
the soldier in the original, Belogorsk's "polite person" is unmasked,
a detail that didn't pass unremarked on social media:
Stanislav
Melyukov, the mayor of Belogorsk and the mastermind behind the project, says he
hopes the monument will become a major tourist attraction. The city has already
laid special decorative tiles around the statue and installed a video
surveillance system to discourage vandalism.
The memorial is a tribute to the armed men in unmarked olive-drab uniforms who entered Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in February 2014, seizing control of airports, administration buildings, and other key structures in a purported effort to "protect" the territory's majority-Russian population from Ukrainian unrest.
The memorial is a tribute to the armed men in unmarked olive-drab uniforms who entered Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in February 2014, seizing control of airports, administration buildings, and other key structures in a purported effort to "protect" the territory's majority-Russian population from Ukrainian unrest.
The soldiers, originally referred to as "little green men," were later given the "polite people" moniker in an attempt to improve their image.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin admitted the men were Russian troops only after Crimea
had been annexed following a widely criticized public referendum.
Asked
if Belogorsk had been too hasty in immortalizing a particularly controversial
chapter in Russia's recent history, Mayor Melyukov said the statue was a matter
of patriotism, not current events.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly has thrown his support behind erecting a second "polite person" monument in Moscow.
--
Daisy Sindelar
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-ukraine-rebels-train-child-soldiers-in-the-making-2015-6?IR=T
Ukraine rebels train
child soldiers in the making
Yulia
Silina, AFP
Jun.
24, 2015, 8:21 AM
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A pro-Russian
separatist teaches boys how to use a Kalashnikov machine gun, in the eastern
Ukrainian city of Khartsyzk, Donetsk region. © AFP Andrey Borodulin
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Khartsyzk
(Ukraine) (AFP) - He is only 14 but already knows how to assemble a Kalashnikov
rifle. Denis is a child soldier in the making -- eager to join the pro-Russian
militants fighting Ukrainian troops.
"If I were an adult, I would fight," the skinny boy with a dishevelled
crew-cut said in a war-scarred town deep in the heart of the rebel-run east of
the ex-Soviet state.
"I want to see war, to learn how to shoot, to see the
tanks," he said with
an air of excitement as two adult rebels stood nodding at his side.
The
UN children's agency said in January it had no proof of minors being used in
one of Europe's bloodiest and most diplomatically-charged conflicts since the
end of the Cold War.
UNICEF
believes that about 250,000 children are being exploited in wars fought across
nearly two dozen countries -- many of them in Africa.
But
the Western-backed leaders in Kiev accuse the rebels of training a small army
of child soldiers in schools under their control.
About
20 kids between the ages of 14 and 19 are still taking training lessons in the
town of Khartsyzk -- home to 60,000 people prior to the breakout of
hostilities and a flood of migrants for safer regions that followed -- in the
first weeks of their summer break.
Some
like Denis are learning basic drills. But his parents are understandably wary
after being trapped in fighting that has killed 6,500 and shows few signs of
abating 15 months on.
"They
do not talk about the war with me. They hate it," Denis said. "They
do not even watch the news."
Others
like 17-year-old Alina are taking first aid lessons provided by the rebel
command.
"We are still children and not ready to go to the front," she conceded.
"But
if something were to happen, I would be able to help out."
-
'Back to the USSR' –
The
Khartsyzk military lessons for children are organised by Patriotic Donbass --
the local name for a rustbelt region that hugs the 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile)
Don River and includes the self-declared "people's republics" of
Lugansk and Donetsk.
Patriotic
Donbass boss Yury Tsupka -- a 53-year-old who disdains the Ukrainian
nationalists who fight as volunteers across the war zone -- said he only wanted
to reinstate the old Soviet tradition of teaching army skills in school.
"We decided to go back to what we had in the USSR," the fatigues-clad Tsupka said.
"We will also teach them to dig trenches, to work the
terrain."
Tsupka
said more and more schools across the heavily Russified region were running
such military clubs. He said there were at least four others in surrounding
towns alone.
But
not all of them are providing simple training.
Some
have seen their pupils actually join the Khartsyzk separatist units stationed
in the mine-strewn fields that stretch 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the
rebel stronghold city of Donetsk.
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Child Soldiers of Novorossiya
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'Not afraid of blood' –
Anya
and Katya are genial twins who are used to wearing heavy combat boots.
They
seem at ease and not the slightest bit regretful recalling how -- at the tender
age of 19 -- they made the life-altering decision to quit their technical
college and join one of the local militia forces.
"We
studied and lived in Donetsk when the war started," Katya said.
"We
decided to join the rebellion when we learned that kids were being
killed."
Monitors
from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) believe
that at least 68 children have died and 180 have been wounded since fighting
began in March 2014.
The
campaign's brutality has splintered family allegiances and left psychological
scars on both ethnic Russian and Ukrainians -- fellow Slavs who had lived in
relative harmony even after the Soviet Union broke up.
Anya
admits that "at first, mom would not let us" join the war.
But
she then she caved, and started going along with her daughters to treat rebels
wounded at the front.
"Before the war, I used to be afraid of blood -- of its
smell," Katya said. "I am not afraid of blood any more."
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Novorossiya, children of war – Archive
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://uatoday.tv/politics/russian-backed-militants-train-children-for-war-444735.html
14:31 Jun. 24, 2015
Russian-backed militants
train children for war
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In a picture taken on Saturday, March 7, 2015,
Denis, second from left, along with other boys looks out from the window of a
children's home, in Khartsyzk, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
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"We
decided to go back to what we had in the Soviet Union," the fatigues-clad
Tsiupka said.
The
Patriotic Donbas militant
organization has organized military training for children in the
militant-controlled town of Khartsyzk, according to AFP.
Patriotic
Donbas boss Yuriy Tsiupka - a 53-year-old who disdains the Ukrainian
nationalists who fight as volunteers across the war zone - said he only wanted
to reinstate the old Soviet tradition of teaching army skills in school.
"We decided
to go back to what we had in the Soviet Union," the fatigues-clad Tsiupka said.
"We will
also teach them to dig trenches, to work the terrain," he said.
About
20 kids between the ages of 14 and 19 are still taking training lessons in the
town of Khartsyzk - home to 60,000 people prior to the breakout of hostilities
and a flood of migrants for safer regions that followed - in the first weeks of
their summer break. Some of them are learning basic drills, while others
are taking first aid lessons provided by the rebel command.
For
example, Denis is only 14 but he already knows how to assemble a
Kalashnikov rifle. Denis is a child soldier in the making - eager to join
the pro-Russian militants fighting Ukrainian troops.
"If I was an
adult, I would fight,"
the skinny boy with a disheveled crew-cut said in a war-scarred town deep in
the heart of the rebel-run east of the ex-Soviet state.
"I want to
see war, to learn how to shoot, to see the tanks," he said with an air of excitement as
two adult rebels stood nodding at his side.
Tsiupka
said more and more schools across the heavily Russified region were running
such military clubs. He said there were at least four others in surrounding
towns alone.
But
not all of them are providing simple training.
Some
have seen their pupils actually join the Khartsyzk separatist units stationed
in the mine-strewn fields that stretch 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the
rebel stronghold city of Donetsk.
School children in the town of Khartsyzk in northern Donetsk are learning how to assemble Kalashnikov rifles -- eager to join the pro-Russian militants fighting Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine
rebels train child soldiers in the making
Published on Jun 24, 2015
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up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe
School children in the town of Khartsyzk in northern Donetsk are learning how to assemble Kalashnikov rifles -- eager to join the pro-Russian militants fighting Ukrainian troops.
VIDEO
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LiU9vUk3jY
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