Inside the protester-occupied Trade Unions building, people in ski masks and helmets, wielding clubs and other weapons, mill about. Their faces are serious, their mood is tense.
In any other situation, this would be a scary
crowd. But these people are members of the anti-government EuroMaidan
movement’s self-defense unit. Young and old, men and women, they must be able
to mobilize quickly to protect the fortified protest camp on Independence
Square in Kyiv.
They had to spring into action over the
weekend, on Feb. 8, when a group of several hundred pro-government “titushkis”
advanced on protesters’ barricades but then retreated after a massive show of defense
by EuroMaidan supporters. The foray appeared to be an effort by the
pro-government camp to test the strength of demonstrators’ lines.
EuroMaidan defenders endure long shifts in
freezing weather to keep a lookout for attacks by riot police and “titushki” on
Independence Square, where the protests began on Nov. 21, or Hrushevskoho
Street, where protesters and police have been engaged in a standoff since Jan.
19.
The first violent police dispersal of
protesters on Nov. 30, but other attempts took place most notably on Dec. 10-11
and on Jan. 22, when three protesters were killed by gunfire after police
charged on the crowd.
The initial Nov. 30 incident, in which police
injured dozens of mostly student protesters, prompted the formation of the
self-defense units.
Volodymyr Haydamaka, head of one of EuroMaidan’s
self-defense units, witnessed the Nov. 30 attack.
“When I
saw how brutally Berkut riot police attacked and dispersed peaceful students on
Maidan Nezalezhnosti on Nov. 30 I was shocked,” says Haydamaka. “The next day on
Dec. 1, we formed our first Mykhaylivsky unit to protect women and children
from riot police attacks.”
Since Dec.1, the number of EuroMaidan
self-defense units has grown significantly. EuroMaidan commandant Stepan Kubiv
says there are now approximately 4,000 men manning the barricades surrounding
EuroMaidan’s territory, which include occupied government buildings such as Ukrainian
House, October Palace, House of Trade Unions and Kyiv City Hall.
Recent calls by opposition leaders during a
mass rally on Independence Square on Feb. 9 could spur more Ukrainians into
joining. Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko urged all Ukrainians who can
join to grab a baseball bat and helmet, kiss their children and then do so.
But Haydamaka says it is not for everyone.
“We warn everyone who is afraid of police, not
to enter our self-defense units,” says Haydamaka. “We understand that we can die
here or get serious injuries, nevertheless we are ready to give our lives for
freedom.”
The living conditions are from comfortable. They
sleep on mattresses on the floor inside the Trade Unions
building. They also go through training each day, sometimes in sub-zero
temperatures, learning defense techniques.
Nevertheless Andriy Andreyev, one of EuroMaidan’s
guards, does not complain.
“It’s a little bit difficult to practice these self-defense techniques in the open air when you are
dressed in jacket and hat, but I like it,” he said.
Another volunteer, Yuriy Levchenko, a commandant
of the protester-occupied Ukrainian House, says the discipline in the
self-defense units is very strict. Guards must obey orders from their chiefs,
for example, and inside smoking and excessing drinking are forbidden.
“People stand on their posts for eight hours or
more,” he explains.
The EuroMaidan self-defense unit was formed
similarly to the Zaporizhiya Cossacks military groups, according to the
founders, and even borrows its name for the unit and its head commanders – sotnya and sotnyk, respectively.
The sotnyk has three deputies who help him to
organize the sotnya’s everyday life. The number of men in each sotnya varies
from 50 to 300 men.
Each group is comprised of members from various
political parties, including opposition parties Batkivshchyna and Svoboda. But
member from the militant Pravy Sector also make up a substantial proportion of
the larger self-defense units, along with many members who are non-aligned.
Batkivshchyna supporters are the most numerous
– the party has 35 self-defense units while Svoboda has 20, according to Kubiv. An addition 1,500 from Pravy Sector and
nearly 200 people who do not belong to any party work with them.
Pravy Sector and non-aligned self-defense
groups do not take orders from the National Resistance Headquarters, as the
trade unions building is known, but Svoboda and Batkivschyna units do.
“Under the threat of Berkut riot police attacks,
EuroMaidan self-defense groups unite and synchronize despite ideological
differences,” Kubiv said. “Everyone here has a strong sense of responsibility for
Maidan’s future.”
Women on guard
Women are welcome to participate in the
activities of EuroMaidan, but not in its self-defense units, say Havryliuk. “We do not accept women,” he said. “A woman’s
task is to give birth.”
Olena Shevchenko, head of the nongovernmental
organization Insight, takes issue with the statement. “A woman is not born with
a function of cooking borsch,” says Shevchenko, who is a member of the first EuroMaidan women’s self-defense
unit, which now has 40 members.
“We wanted to demonstrate that a woman is able
to do the same things as a man does,” Shevchenko said. “Our main message is
that women should be treated equally.”
Kyiv Post staff writer
Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected].
