When pro-Russian rebels first fanned out across eastern Ukraine in April, seizing public buildings, ousting local officials and blockading streets and highways, the government’s security forces – a ragtag lot of poorly equipped and understaffed military and police units – were largely paralyzed by dysfunction and defection. They seemed to remain so for months, The New York Times writes.
“The military themselves learned to fight,” said the director of military programmes of the Razumkov Centre Mykola Sungurovskyi.
“They have overcome that psychological barrier in which the military were afraid to shoot living people,” Mr. Sungurovskyi said. “They had this barrier after Maidan, …read more
Source: Razumkov Centre