On the steps of Slavyansk's occupied town hall a group of armed men in fatigues posed happily for photos. They were equipped with Kalashnikovs – military-issue AK-74s – commando knives, flak jackets and walkie-talkies. Round the back, close to the main square with its Lenin statue, was a green military truck. It bore no insignia.
Who exactly were they? "We're Cossacks," one of the group explained. "It doesn't matter where we are from." He declined to give his name. Instead, he offered a quick history lesson, stretching back a thousand years, to when Slavic tribes banded together to form Kievan Rus – the dynasty that eventually flourished into modern-day Ukraine and its big neighbour Russia. "We don't want Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't exist for us. There are no people called Ukrainians," he declared. "There are just Slav people who used to be in Kievan Rus, before Jews like Trotsky divided us. We should all be together again." The man – a middle-aged commando with a bushy beard – said he had come to Slavyansk "to help". He didn't intend to kill anybody, he said. Producing a long knife, he said: "I can't kill my brother Slavs." full: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/14/prorussian-militias-fill-vacuum-kiev-control-eastern-ukraine-slips _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
