Babushka Brigade Ukraine - Mariupol, Ukraine - Valentina Konstantinovska, 79, is ready to take up arms and fight Russian troops to protect her city if President Vladimir Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine.
Since conflict erupted in the country in 2014, Konstantinovska and an army of "babushka" volunteers have dug ditches, delivered supplies, built nets, provided medical care and even built a watchtower.
Babushka Brigade Ukraine
As tensions with Russia enter a critical week and the United States warns that troops could launch a bloody campaign to take over the country within days, some women are doing whatever it takes to help the war effort. They are willing to do, even send a battalion. Babushka
Ukrainian Woman Confronting Russian Soldier Saying \
"I love my city, I'm not leaving. Putin can't scare us. Yes, it's scary, but we will stand by our Ukraine until the end," Konstantinovska told the city's residents to defend themselves and prepare. said during an event to teach how to
The training, organized by the far-right Azov movement, provided basic lessons in first responder medical care, survival and evacuation, gun safety and gun shooting. Residents of the neighborhood said it was the only safety or awareness training they had received in the nearly eight years of conflict.
"I've been dreaming of learning how to use a gun since 2014 but I've been told 'babushka, you're too old for that'. The recoil will sweep you off your feet," yoga mat in a lemon silk coat. To practice aiming a Model AK-47 assault rifle while lying down, Konstantinowska said.
Ukraine's far-right Azov Battalion, part of Ukraine's National Guard special forces, has been training residents for a possible Russian attack [Emre Caylak/Al Jazeera]
Grandmother Lida (84) With A Gun Defends Freedom Of Ukraine. 🇺🇦❤🇺🇦
The Azov movement, a far-right, all-volunteer militia, is ultra-nationalist and has been accused of harboring neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology. A political wing based in Kyiv enjoys little support - they failed to win a seat in parliament in the recent 2019 elections.
In Mariupol, however, Azov's military wing is often seen as the city's defenders after it was retaken from a brief takeover by Russian-backed separatists in 2014. Line of defense in case of attack.
Since Azov was banned from Facebook in 2019 for hate speech, the event was advertised on Instagram without mentioning Azov's participation, and not all of the approximately 300 attendees were aware. Who is hosting the event?
Konstantinovska, who does not share Azov's political views, only cares about "defending her fatherland", a doctrine she wholeheartedly embraces and does her best.
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Lyudmila Semhalenko, 65, lost a relative in 2015 while fighting separatists in eastern Ukraine. He said that after volunteering in the war, he has a strong feeling for the fighting men.
"We are already a battalion of Babushka. In 2014, we dug trenches, built field bases and brought them everything we could, like we donated our pillows, blankets, plates, mugs. " said Semhalenko, who was dressed from head to toe in a deep pink dress.
"You try to help the soldiers and they become like your children. Then someone dies. Now so much is lost and it seems like your children are dying every time.
He, too, is ready to do whatever it takes to protect Mariupol and is ready to express his gratitude to the young men who emerged in 2014 "who were the first victims of the bombing."
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"If Russia attacks, I am ready to fight even if I have to fight hand to hand with them. They are not our brothers," he said.
The Ukrainian government has dismissed the threat of an attack, which the US has warned could come at any time, while the Azov movement says the crisis is now at its peak and has become "very dangerous". Is.
Questions were raised about government preparations where bomb shelters were in disrepair and planned but lacked digital alarm systems. A civil zone defense team was formed at the beginning of the year to train reservists, but little hostile environment training was given to civilians.
Azov members said they were holding regular training sessions to prepare the population to be more self-sufficient in the event of an attack and to allow soldiers to focus on military matters.
Kiev Ukraine Old Village Babushka Her Editorial Stock Photo
"We cannot bury our heads in the sand because it is most irresponsible, so we have organized this event today especially to do it on ourselves. The citizens here are our responsibility and they have to do it." It should be known that we will stand here until the last drop of blood," an anonymous Azov commander told Al Jazeera.
For 72-year-old Liudmyla Halbay, who teaches free Ukrainian lessons in a predominantly Russian-speaking area, the training has made her feel safer amid the predictions of nihilism projected by Western media.
"I didn't have an evacuation bag in 2014, and I don't have one now. As everything around me burned and collapsed, I just saw how I could help," Halbe said. Said, who was dressed in black and the fur of his hat rustled lightly in the winter wind.
"We have to endure somehow, and that helps reduce the fear. We also hope that the whole world will help us and that this war does not break out." A street display of the Azov Battalion in Kharkiv, Ukraine Photo credit: Adam Jones / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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Over the weekend, several reporters from mainstream Western media attended a training session conducted by a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, not far from the Donbass, at a Black Sea inlet. The session was being conducted. Azov reported. The area has been held by Russian-backed separatist forces since a 2014 invasion.
In response to the ongoing threat of a major Russian attack, civilians have seen basic training in the use of assault rifles and other military equipment. One image in particular resonates: a gray-haired, 79-year-old woman sprawled on the ground in a shooting position with a Kalashnikov slung over her as a man in camouflage gives instructions. On the man's arm was a patch with his unit's insignia: a yellow and blue wolf sable below the word "Azov", indicating that he belonged to the Azov Regiment.
Ukrainian great-grandmother Valentina Konstantinovska trains with her Ak-47 to defend against a possible Russian attack. “Your mother would, too,” he told me. pic.twitter.com/PnojqRir4K — Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) February 13, 2022
What is Wolfsangel? Once a symbol of freedom struggle, but in the last century II. But more importantly, what is Azov and are its members Nazis, as some reporters and activists insist? Does this mean that NATO is sending troops and money to Eastern Europe to support fascists?
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The answer may depend on who you ask. Azov is a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, currently under the control of the country's Ministry of the Interior. But, according to left-leaning writers and researchers as well as members of Congress, Azov is a "neo-Nazi" and "white supremacist" organization with global connections to other far-right movements.
After the viral Babushka civil defense mandate, left-leaning Western media and public figures quickly and easily commented on "Azov are Nazis": "This AK-47-wielding Ukrainian granny was shot by neo-Nazis." Why is training being given?" he asked.
Incredulous Czech media reported that the photo operation of Grani Valentina was organized by the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. Meaning, a veritable Nazi propaganda tool, darling of the British media elite. The real face of Ukrainian resistance. https://t.co/Gis690ivAK pic.twitter.com/hYVdnd2zBe — Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) February 14, 2022
These are pertinent questions to ask about the deeply troubling Azov unit, its undeniably far-right origins and current affiliations and ideologies. Incongruously, these are also the kinds of questions that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin want Western democracies to ask.
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While ten years ago it was undeniably far-right based and at one point Azov undoubtedly welcomed neo-Nazis, today Azov unit leaders insist that their regiment of around 1,000 officers and soldiers There was nothing. About Politics The unit is not a political organisation. "It's just a regular unit of the National Guard," said Anton Shekhotsov, a lecturer at the University of Vienna who has published several books on the far right in Eastern Europe. "It has no ideology because it cannot have an ideology. It is not a political organization but a military unit.
Shekhovtsov insists that the ideological object is to recklessly portray Ukrainians as neo-Nazis. (As another expert told Vice, "Without Izak, Russia would have invented it.")
“This is a recurring narrative for [Russians] using [Azov].
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