War

A video has emerged showing police officers refusing to fight en masse

A video of a meeting of police officers from Dnipropetrovs’k region discussing the possible deployment of special police forces to the Interior Ministry’s assault brigade ‘Rage’ has been posted online. The police officers are deeply outraged by this prospect and agree to go to war, reports

According to the channels that disseminated the video, it is about a conflict between a special unit of the National Police in the Dnipro region and its superiors. The leadership wants to send the police officers to fight in the Rage Brigade, but they refuse. They seem to be ready to fight only as part of their own unit. At the same time, the ‘Rage’ brigade is a combat assault unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“Are you part of the Defence Forces? Does a policeman make a decision – here I want to be, here I don’t want to be? Will I protect you here or not here?”

– the policeman says in the video to the rest of his colleagues.

In response, he is asked to show his commitment by example.

The caption to one of the videos also states that many of the riot police officers in the video are former Berkut officers, a special police unit that was disbanded after the Maidan events in 2014. This can explain, for example, the words from the video “You, nit from Maidan”, etc.

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksandr Fatsevych reacted to the video, stating that the Ukrainian police “are worthy of every word of the oath”.

“Since 2022, for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian police, special forces from various units have become full-fledged combatants, and the assault brigade of the National Police “Rage” has been created… Those who want to fight go to the front. For the rest, there are also many police tasks. Regarding the video… about the Special Forces regiment in Dnipro, the leadership of the National Police will clarify all the circumstances and make appropriate decisions. The police have been, are and will be worthy of every word of the oath and will continue to effectively perform all their duties and functions,”

– Fatsevych commented on the video.