Internal Security Divisions
The following is from a Jane's Intelligence Digest article that was emailed to me as part of the Action Ukraine Report. Very interesting stuff. And if you don't want to read it, there's pictures I took last night further down the page.
...Members of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) have long been working
secretly with supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Between
the first and second rounds of the poll, the SBU illicitly taped mobile
telephone conversations between key figures surrounding Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych. Recordings were passed to Yushchenko following the
second round of voting and have been submitted as evidence to the Supreme
Court, which was investigating election fraud...
...Ukraine's military is also predominantly pro-Yushchenko. Many officers
adopted a pro-Western position as a result of Ukraine's involvement in
NATO's Partnership for Peace programme during the last decade. Four days
after the second round of the election, the former SBU chairman and Defence
Minister Yevhen Marchuk defected to the Yushchenko camp...
However, the position of the Interior Ministry (MVS) is very different. The
MVS has taken up many of the functions of the Soviet-era KGB and has
been active against the opposition. Nevertheless, during the recent
demonstrations, the MVS ranks split. Police and cadets defected to the
Yushchenko camp while most special forces units and MVS internal troops
have remained loyal to Kuchma. Only in western Ukraine did the MVS
Spetsnaz units declare their loyalty to Yushchenko.
Up to 500 members of Russian Spetsnaz forces from the Vityaz special forces
division in Bryansk are currently deployed at a Ukrainian Interior Ministry
(MVS) military base in Irpin, near Kiev. Two transports flew them into the
Gostomel aerodrome near Irpin between 1 and 3 am on 24 November, three
days after the hotly disputed second round of the presidential election on
21 November...The current deployment of Russian special forces on Ukrainian soil has
no legal basis. No agreement between Ukraine and Russia permits the
Ukrainian president to invite foreign troops into the country without
parliament's approval.
I guess PFP actually does some good after all...
...Members of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) have long been working
secretly with supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Between
the first and second rounds of the poll, the SBU illicitly taped mobile
telephone conversations between key figures surrounding Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych. Recordings were passed to Yushchenko following the
second round of voting and have been submitted as evidence to the Supreme
Court, which was investigating election fraud...
...Ukraine's military is also predominantly pro-Yushchenko. Many officers
adopted a pro-Western position as a result of Ukraine's involvement in
NATO's Partnership for Peace programme during the last decade. Four days
after the second round of the election, the former SBU chairman and Defence
Minister Yevhen Marchuk defected to the Yushchenko camp...
However, the position of the Interior Ministry (MVS) is very different. The
MVS has taken up many of the functions of the Soviet-era KGB and has
been active against the opposition. Nevertheless, during the recent
demonstrations, the MVS ranks split. Police and cadets defected to the
Yushchenko camp while most special forces units and MVS internal troops
have remained loyal to Kuchma. Only in western Ukraine did the MVS
Spetsnaz units declare their loyalty to Yushchenko.
Up to 500 members of Russian Spetsnaz forces from the Vityaz special forces
division in Bryansk are currently deployed at a Ukrainian Interior Ministry
(MVS) military base in Irpin, near Kiev. Two transports flew them into the
Gostomel aerodrome near Irpin between 1 and 3 am on 24 November, three
days after the hotly disputed second round of the presidential election on
21 November...The current deployment of Russian special forces on Ukrainian soil has
no legal basis. No agreement between Ukraine and Russia permits the
Ukrainian president to invite foreign troops into the country without
parliament's approval.
I guess PFP actually does some good after all...
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