Ukraine
Crisis Continues to Deepen



According to news agency reports, despite the ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on February 12, the crisis in which Ukraine is mired continues to deepen. The agreement, signed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, as well as Swiss diplomat and Organization for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE) representative Heidi Tagliavini, was set to go into effect on February 15. This was delayed due to intense fighting in the town of Debaltsevo at that time, where the Ukrainian army had been encircled since the end of January. However, the Ukrainian government finally conceded defeat and on February 18 the army began to withdraw, the Guardian reports.Anti-conscription rally February, 2015 in Dneprovka, Ukraine.

The Ukrainian army is facing a serious issue of lack of military personnel due to desertion and refusal of conscripts to join the military. According to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian army presently has 200,000 troops and an additional 75,000 men are being conscripted, of whom 60 per cent will enter service. Preference is given to men with military experience. The conscription efforts include pay bonuses for each day spent in active battle and the destruction of enemy vehicles, Reuters reports. Any Ukrainian man between 20 and 60 years old judged fit to serve could be called up to fight, news agencies report. There is also an order that in effect prohibits males eligible for military service from leaving the country unless they show proof of having registered for the draft.

Ukrainian journalist and activist Dmitry Kolesnik, in a February 6 item for CounterPunch, writes, "[F]rom the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has seen refusals by soldiers to fire on their fellow citizens, desertions from the army and refusals to show up for conscription. Women -- the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of military conscripts -- have held protests and even riots against the war or against forced military service.

"The protests have been sparked, first of all, by the fact that many Ukrainians do not accept the interpretation of the war as offered by the government. They don't necessarily see foreign (i.e., Russian) aggression. They only know that when a Ukrainian soldier lifts his gun or artillery barrel, it is a compatriot, a fellow Ukrainian, who appears in the gunsight.

"Secondly, many people don't want to die for the current government which they view as composed of extreme nationalists and neoliberals. They are unwilling to be cannon fodder dying for the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs whose only apparent interest is to pursue a civil war, siphon Western financial aid and suppress opposition to their rule. A young woman recently voiced this sentiment searingly at a rally held in her village in south-central Ukraine.

"Last but not least, many ordinary workers and farmers (contrary to middle-class, urban dwellers), preserve entrenched, regional identities. They consider their homeland to be a region such as Donbas, Bukovyna, Transkarpathia or Volhynia as much as, or perhaps even more importantly,[than]the entity called 'Ukraine.' It is harder to sell to such people the war's patriotic, pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia message."

Justin Raimondo, writing for antiwar.com, recounts a recent protest:

"When Ukrainian army officers came to the Ukrainian village of Velikaya Znamenka to tell the men to prepare to be drafted, they weren't prepared for what happened next. As the commanding officer was speaking, a woman seized the microphone and proceeded to tell him off: 'We're sick of this war! Our husbands and sons aren't going anywhere!' She then launched into a passionate speech, denouncing the war, and the coup leaders in Kiev, to the cheers of the crowd." The video of her speech and the villagers' response with English subtitles can be viewed below.

Conscription Problems

Dmitry Kolesnik goes on to describe the extent of the conscription problems:

"The astonishing fact that almost no one is coming voluntarily to the military recruitment offices in this fourth, latest round of conscription is causing panic in the government and top army command of Ukraine. They are appealing, as always, to patriotic and nationalist sentiments, but this is falling increasingly on deaf ears.

"Men of conscription age are fleeing in the thousands, crossing Ukraine's borders in all directions, or taking cover internally, to escape the clutches of the military recruiters. President Poroshenko has been obliged to order that, henceforth, only those men of military age with papers confirming they are duly registered with their military registration office will be permitted to leave the country.

"'Each day, new facts about mass, draft evasion are emerging,' reports the Ukrainian daily Korrespondent. It writes, 'In the first wave of military mobilization in 2014, 20 per cent of those who showed up for the conscription call did so voluntarily. In the second wave the same year, it was ten per cent.

"'This year, only six per cent of those conscripts showing up for the call to service have done so voluntarily.'

"In the Transcarpathia region in western Ukraine, entire villages have scattered across various borders to escape conscription of their menfolk. The head of the village council of Kosiv district in Ivano-Frankivsk region reports that the entire population of the village booked buses and have moved to Russia to wait out the war.

"In the village of Colchino, authorities could find only three of the 105 eligible males to whom to serve papers.

"Chief Recruitment Officer for Transcarpathia, O. Boyko, told Korrespondent , 'It may seem a paradox, but from the western Ukrainian region of Ternopyl, people have fled to Russia in order to escape army conscription.'

"Many people are selecting east European countries as temporary refuges. Yuri Biryukov, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, has admitted, 'In the last 30 days, 17 per cent of the total number of reservists of the entire region of Chernivtsy (western Ukraine) have crossed borders into other countries.'"

In a now deleted post on Biryukov's Facebook page at the end of January, he complained and confirmed how badly the recruitment drive is going:

"Heads of 14 rural councils of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast refused to accept the summons for notifications.

"57% of notified conscripts in Ivano-Frankivsk region did not arrive for medical commission.

"37% of notified conscripts of Ivano-Frankivsk region have left the territory of Ukraine.

"Ternopil region rural council heads openly sabotage events of notification.

"Konyukhi, Kozovsky village council head reported residents leaving for Russia on two rented buses.

"In Transcarpathian region Colchino, Mukachevo township, only 3 of 105 summons were presented.

"In the last 30 days, 17% of Chernivtsi region conscripts left the area.

"Unofficial sources report Ukrainian/Romanian border area hotels and motels 'completely filled with Ukrainian men evading conscription.'

"19% of (Volyn Oblast) notified conscripts refused military service on religious grounds."

The Guardian reports that in January, journalist Ruslan Kotsaba, from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, posted a video addressed to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in which he said "he would rather go to prison for five years for draft-dodging than fight pro-Russia rebels in the country's east. Now he faces 15 years in jail after being arrested for treason and obstructing the military."

New Law Allows Deserters to Be Shot

Desertion is also reported to be a big problem for the Ukrainian army. An indication of the seriousness is that the Ukrainian parliament recently passed a law allowing deserters to be shot. The problem was reported by an advisor to the president as being primarily in western Ukraine, traditionally a "hotbed of anti-Russian sentiment," according to RT .

The new law providing for the summary execution of deserters states that commanders "have the right to personally use physical force, special means, and weapons when in combat" against soldiers who commit "criminal acts." Under criminal acts the law lists "disobedience, resistance or threat to use force against the commander, voluntary abandonment of military positions and certain locations of military units in areas of combat missions." An explanatory note says that currently there are mass violations of military discipline, in particular, desertion from units and drinking alcohol, as well as failure to execute commanders' orders.A recent protest against conscription in Kramatoskanti

(Reuters, CounterPunch, Fort Russ, Guardian, CBC, RT, photos: SOTT, New Cold War)

(TML Weekly No. 9, February 28, 2015)