@JamesMiller
Personal account of James Miller, Managing Editor of The Interpreter, a publication on Russia, Ukraine, and Syria. A contributor at Reuters, The Daily Beast, RFE/RL, elsewhere.
JamesMiller
8 years
Riot Police Refuse to Carry Out Orders?
A claim from the Russian state-owned media outlet ITAR-TASS:
Leaders of the Ukrainian anti-riot police unit Alfa have refused to obey the orders of the interim authorities in Kiev to storm the administrative buildings in the east Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, the local media reported on Friday.ITAR-TASS makes several interesting choices in language here. The Alfa anti-riot police are the infamous units that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has said shot protesters in Maidan during February's uprising. Regardless, while there have been reports of police defecting today, we cannot independently verify this specific claim at this time.
"We are going to act in strict compliance with the law. Our unit has been set up to release hostages and fight terrorism," one of the Alfa leaders said.
Published in Press-Stream Ukraine Liveblog Day 55: Police Fight Separatists in Gun Battles in Publication Ukraine Liveblogs