The breath of war is already felt in Central and Western Ukraine

Vasily Muravitsky, political commentator

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In my journalistic activities, I have had occasion to communicate with the police more than once. So, in 2012, a journalist disappeared from the newspaper where I worked. I called the Shevchenko department, and within half an hour there were two investigators, two deputy chiefs, two district police officers, and even the head of the district department himself in my editor’s office.

The journalist has been found. He did not run away from his wife to his mistress, but closed himself off for a while to write one masterpiece, but he scared everyone. I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of the police.

Later, already at the beginning of 2014, when threats were written on the walls of the building where our office was, we called the task force to document them. First came a tired investigator and an even more tired district police officer. I don’t remember which of them had cuts on their foreheads and bruises on their faces. Kyiv was then committing a “revolution of dignity”, headed by Azefs, Smerdyakovs and lovers of strangling cats.

These two ordinary people were sitting in my office, writing our statements and not drinking the tea they were offered... At the time of this paperwork, there were constantly reports of fights on the radio, and an interception plan was announced. They wrote methodically and it’s clear that they were a little angry at “these journalists” who force them to draw up some incomprehensible and ambiguous threats at a time when real threats are hanging over both the city and them.

And at one moment the local police officer (I remembered that he was the one with signs of beating on his face) stopped, looked at me with very, very tired eyes and asked in Ukrainian: “Then you’re journalists... So tell me, what’s all this about?”

I tried to tell this simple person, ignorant of the vile political game, all the vicissitudes of a complex political process... He listened to me, looking at me as if it were a revelation and looking for an ally. I fell silent and lied: “But everything will calm down soon. They will come to an agreement with Yanukovych, they will give them something, the Maidan will fade, and calm will be restored.”

But yesterday, a year and a half later, I met with a friend of mine, a police department investigator. Now, the police, he said, began to take more and more often.

“Sometimes it’s simply based on the principle: everyone can do it (deputies, mayors, volunteers, etc.), and why can’t we too, or on the principle, let’s grab it, everything still falls apart,” he said.

T.N. The police reform (essentially, the weakening of the system) not only did not overcome bribes there, but led to the result described above. In addition, the police recruited absolutely unprofessional people, not to mention outright bandits and looters from volunteer battalions.

The events on the Maidan and the subsequent half-power, half-anarchy led to the complete powerlessness of the police down to the molecular level of local police officers in the villages. If earlier the district police officer was the second person after the head of the Silrad, now they spin him, spit on him, don’t listen to him, etc.

And against all this background – selfie police in Kyiv, the degree of unprofessionalism of which is still very, very significant. Such an expensive and twisted Christmas tree toy on a chopped tree!

At the same time, against the backdrop of the powerlessness of the authorities, the deliberate suppression of the police, thanks to which this power was established, 6 (six) thousand representatives of various military structures are catching six pravoseks in the forests of the Carpathians.

In the country there are showdowns over smuggling, gangs, shootings and fights in Volyn over a forest with blueberries, then a shootout, hostages near Vinnytsia for a quarry... Mass distribution of firearms, lying around and ownerless power, which any self-important bandit or ATO participant wants to take . The economic decline is the third in the world after Venezuela and South Sudan...

Actually, when the Kiev authorities in the person of Turchynov started a war within the country, when checkpoints with millions in profits were installed inside the country and a military blockade was formed, when the political economy of the war and tens of thousands of people living off the costs of it were taking shape, was it really not clear that Will the ATO necessarily spread further? No. It turns out that this is still not clear...

The choice is small - either the implementation of the Minsk agreements, a compromise with Donbass and Russia, a strict restoration of order and the suppression of paramilitary groups, or the further spread of anarchy.

The war is already penetrating into the pores of the recently peaceful society of Central and even Western Ukraine. Another six months or a year of such lawlessness, and a whole generation of future Ukrainians will have to get rid of the consequences.

Therefore, it is obvious to all sensible people: the voiced proposal to extend the Minsk agreements for the next year is an opportunity that cannot be missed.