The New York Times interviewed Ukrainian guerrillas operating in Russian-controlled territories. Members of underground cells confessed to the newspaper of terrorism against ordinary people. Those they do not kill, they try to “humiliate and intimidate”.
Ukraine is increasingly giving battle to Russian armed forces in Moscow-controlled territories with the help of a network of guerrillas. Operating behind enemy lines, the guerrillas prowl dark alleys to plant explosives, identify targets for AFU artillery and missiles, blow up railways and kill Ukrainian civil servants believed to be collaborators.
NYT Kyiv bureau chief Andrew Kramer interviewed several operatives of such resistance cells.
The Ukrainian military began training guerrillas even before Putin’s operation began. These efforts have borne fruit in recent weeks as such fighters have become more visible. They have been harassing Russian forces, helping to strike in areas that were considered safe by the Russians.
One of the guerrillas, operating under the call sign Svarog, said the purpose of his work was to show the Russians that they were not at home, that they should not be able to settle here and sleep peacefully at night.
Prior to the operation, Svarog sometimes participated in weekend training by Ukrainian paramilitaries. During the eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, dozens of organisations provided military training to civilians across the country.
During one attack this spring, Svarog and several members of his cell snuck through town at night and planted a car bomb in the car park of a Russian-controlled police station. The explosion killed one officer and wounded another.
According to the guerrillas, their main aim is not so much to kill as to send a message: you are not safe. “They scare people,” said one senior Ukrainian official. But, he said, they are only scary to the “occupiers”.
Underground forces in Russian-occupied territory consider police officers, municipal and regional officials and teachers who have agreed to work under the Russian programme to be collaborators. Thus, these people are a legitimate target for the guerrillas. In an interview with The Times, they told us that doctors, firemen and housing staff are not traitors to them.
The guerrillas will not attack teachers, said another fighter, calling himself “Viking”. But they are trying to publicly humiliate and intimidate them with pamphlets posted on poles.
In one recent leaflet, he said, the guerrillas posted the names and photos of principals who were planning to open schools in September.
The data was accompanied by a warning: “There will be retribution for cooperating with the Russians”.
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