Berkut (special unit)

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Emblem of the Berkut units of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry

Berkut ( ukr. Беркут "golden eagle") was a special unit of the Ukrainian militia , which was subordinate to the Interior Ministry. If the area of ​​responsibility was in special police situations such as crowd and riot control , SWAT and counter-terrorism , she committed human rights violations even during the Euromaidan by performing torture, shooting at protesters and thus responsible for the majority of civilian deaths on the Maidan . A Berkut unit, which reports to the Russian Interior Ministry, has been in existence again in Crimea since March 2014.

history

Berkut units at a major demonstration in 2013

In 1988 , OMON units were established or stationed in larger cities throughout the Soviet Union and thus also on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR . After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the OMON units were subordinated to the respective security authorities of the successor states. In the Ukraine, the OMON was renamed Berkut and in 1992 it was decided to station a unit in every capital of an oblast . Depending on the oblast, the units consisted of 50 to 600 men. In January 2008 the unit consisted of two regiments, six battalions and 19 companies with a total of 3250 members. In 2013, the members of the Berkut came mainly from the eastern regions of Ukraine and the Crimea.

Following the Euromaidan protests in Kiev in early 2014, Berkut units were held responsible for violent use against demonstrators and for fatalities.

In the last week of February 2014, the unit came under increasing pressure. The commanders feared that it would be them who would be held responsible for the victims and possible future deaths. They assumed that angry demonstrators would hang or shoot the Berkut police in public while those responsible were running away. The theft of weapons from a warehouse near Lviv also had an impact on the police officers' assessment of the situation, as they had to assume that the weapons would shortly reach Kiev and be used against them. Attempts to contact with superiors in the Ministry of the Interior were unsuccessful. On February 21, the agreement on the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine was negotiated between the Yanukovych government and the opposition. During the signing ceremony on February 21st, the withdrawal of police units from the capital's government complexes began. It is unclear exactly who was responsible for the withdrawal order. According to a commanding officer, Deputy Interior Minister Viktor Dubovik ordered his Berkut unit to be withdrawn and arranged contact with members of the opposition who were escorting the police out of town. During the course of February 21, almost all police units and guards were withdrawn, so that the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to flee Kiev.

On February 24, a bill to dissolve the Berkut units was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada . The incumbent Interior Minister of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov , ordered the dissolution of the special unit on February 26, 2014. Avakov said the Ministry of the Interior would question around 3,000 Berkut members about their role and behavior in operations against protesters. Ukraine wants to set up a new special unit to protect public order, the previous Berkut units are discredited.

In contrast, the mayor of the Russian-dominated city of Sevastopol in the Crimea , Aleksej Tschalyj, declared that the Berkut unit stationed there would not be disbanded. He announced that he would continue to pay the Berkut members their salaries. They should be on duty at the checkpoints on the roads to Sevastopol. When they returned from Kiev, the Berkut members were celebrated. They publicly asked for forgiveness for "not being able to stop" the "fascists" in Kiev.

At his press conference held in Rostov-on-Don on February 28, 2014 , the deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych defended the use of the Berkut units deployed in Kiev. An order to shoot was not given by him. Rather, the Berkut police were "burned, shot at and killed". He apologized to them. Also on February 28, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in Moscow that Russia would prefer to naturalize Berkut members. The Russian consulate general in Simferopol had received instructions. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the local Berkut unit was integrated into the Russian Interior Ministry as a police force under its old name. Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokolzew said the Berkut units had shown courage and bravery during the Euromaidan.

Procedure

A case against 26 former members of the special unit for terrorism and the murder of 48 demonstrators is ongoing at a Kiev district court (as of May 2017). Of these 26 people, over 20 were in Russia as of May 2017 . Some of the accused Berkut police officers have now acquired Russian citizenship and work for the Russian police unit OMON . A former Berkut commander, Sergei Kuzyuk, who ordered the first violent crackdown on the Euromaidan protests in Kiev on November 30, 2013, was filmed leading a group of OMON police officers during anti-corruption protests in Moscow in June 2017.

tasks

The Berkut units were used in armed special operations to fight organized crime, carry out hostage rescue operations, but also to ensure public safety at mass events.

Calls

Members of the special unit were u. a. used in the containment of the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan in Kiev . According to the organizers of the pro-Russian protests , fifteen members of the special unit were killed. Members of the unit also shot at protesters during the Euromaidan.

criticism

The special unit caused a sensation in January 2014 when the "Ukrainian Independent Council of Jewish Women" accused the special unit Berkut of anti-Semitism . On the Facebook page of "Berkut" there is a lot of content, which among other things should prove the Jewish roots and connections of politicians like Julija Tymoschenko , Vitali Klitschko , Arsenij Jazenjuk and Oleh Tjahnybok . It is also accused there that Jews supported the National Socialists and were members of the Wehrmacht.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interior Ministry is upgrading , Ukraine News of August 9, 2011
  2. ↑ In short: The shooters from Maidan Square in Kiev - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Video . In: Spiegel Online . March 21, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 12, 2019]).
  3. ^ Harrison Jacobs: Why Ukraine's Berkut Special Police Force Is So Scary. Retrieved October 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b 16 років спецпідрозділи "Беркут" охороняють наш спокій! ("For 16 years the special units of the« Berkut »have been protecting our peace"). In: Website of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine ( Міністерство внутрішніх справ України ). January 16th 2008, accessed on May 24, 2015 (Ukrainian): "Спецпідрозділи" Беркут "фактично є резервом Міністра внутрішніх справ України і у разі необхідності забезпечення правопорядку , припинення групових порушень громадського порядку та масових заворушень, проведення спецоперацій, у тому числі антитерористичних . На сьогодні «Беркут» складається з 2 полків, 6 окремих батальйонів і 19 рот загальною чисельніс “я.
  5. ↑ Andrey LIPSKIY: “It seems right to initiate the annexation of the eastern regions of Ukraine to Russia”. In: Novaya Gazeta. February 28, 2015, archived from the original on June 1, 2015 ; Retrieved on May 22, 2015 (English): "Besides, the Berkut units that are used to suppress the riots in Kiev are mostly formed of the natives of the Crimea and eastern regions."
  6. ↑ Andrew Higgins and Andrew Kramer: "Ukraine Leader Was Defeated Even Before He Was Ousted" NYT January 3, 2015, viewed January 3, 2015
  7. ↑ Ukrainian parliament may ban Berkut special task force , ^ website of the Interfax agency dated February 24, 2014
  8. ^ Berkut special forces are being disbanded , Zeit Online from February 26, 2014
  9. ↑ Looking back with a shudder in Kiev , NZZ from February 27, 2014
  10. ^ Violence between Russians and Tatars in Crimea , FAZ from February 27, 2014
  11. ↑ "We are Berkut, our blow is hard" , SPON from February 27, 2014
  12. ↑ “I didn't flee anywhere” , FAZ from February 28, 2014
  13. ^ "Krim-Liveticker" , Die Welt Online from February 28, 2014
  14. ↑ Ukrainian Berkut special police officers welcome the planned issuing of Russian passports , RIA Novosti website from February 28, 2014
  15. ↑ Russian interior bodies created in Crimea and Sevastopol , ITAR-TASS website from March 25, 2014
  16. ↑ High treason trial. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Disgraced euromaidan Special Forces reappear at Moscow protest . In: Moscow Times , June 13, 2017.
  18. ^ A former Berkut commander now wanted in Ukraine for crimes against protesters is spotted working for Moscow's riot police . In: Meduza , June 13, 2017.
  19. ↑ Taras Kuzio: State-led violence in Ukraine's 2004 elections and orange revolution, in: Communist and Post-Communist Studies, No. 43, Elsevier Verlag, Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 383–395 (PDF; 242 kB)
  20. ↑ Live ticker Ukraine: Number of dead in street battles in Kiev rises to 18 , n24.de from February 18, 2014
  21. ↑ 30 марта исполняется 40 дней со дня гибели бойцов Беркута и ВВ, на Юго-Востоке Украаетоке Украаины пройusиna on March 30, 2014
  22. ↑ Jews in Ukraine Outraged at "Berkut" anti-Semitic propaganda. Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, January 25, 2014, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 .;