Criminal "tornado"

Ukraine is investigating serious crimes committed by fighters of the Volunteer Company of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Donbass

The arrest in Ukraine is about 20 employees of the Volunteer Special Forces of the Tornado Ministry of Internal Affairs, including commander Ruslan Onishchenko, on suspicion of murders, rape and robberies in the Donbass, can lead to loud resignations. So far, the case is limited to the conflict between the Ministry of the Interior and the General Prosecutor's Office. This story is actively replicated by state Russian media - as an occasion for discrediting Ukrainian military in the conflict zone in the east of the country.

According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, 43 of the 123 fighters of the Volunteer Company of the Patrol Service of the Police of Special Purpose of Tornado were previously prosecuted, some of them have repeatedly. This unit appeared almost a year ago, and most police officers, mainly residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, had previously served in the Shakhtersk Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was disbanded for looting and raider seizure of enterprises. In mid-June, the chairman of the Lugansk military-civil administration, Gennady Moskal, demanded that the Ukrainian security forces disarm the criminal group "Tornadovites". Moskal, in particular, accused representatives of the unit of blocking freight transport by rail. In response, the Tornado fighters stated that the only train stopped by them, who was heading from Alchevsk to Dnepropetrovsk, allegedly transported smuggled cast iron. The policemen barricaded at their base in the city of Highness of Luhansk region and threatened to use weapons in case of trying to assault them.

A detachment of one of the volunteer battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine near Mariupol. June 2015

However, everything ended peacefully. The Lugansk Regional Prosecutor's Office was able to carry out investigative actions on the basis and in one of the basements of the local school. Here, according to investigators, the “Tornadovites” committed sexual crimes, tortured and, perhaps, even killed civilians of the Luhansk region. According to the testimony of the victims, the police tortured them with electric shock and forced them to rape each other, and they themselves shot it on a telephone video camera.

- I signed a decree on the disbandment of the Tornado company, all its fighters were brought out of the state. The investigation has begun. Everyone will pass a direct interview, accusations will be put forward or not made against each. Someone will continue the service further, but someone-no, someone will fall under court prosecution, but someone does not. This situation is also subjected to a speculative attack, like any such action recently - they say, these guys fought with smuggling and that is why they were arrested, they say, these guys are superpatriots, and therefore the homeland does not need them. All this is a lie. Everyone who wants to say such words can go to the village of Lugansk, chat there with people and understand what these people were arrested for, ”said Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

All victims in the Tornado case are now under the protection of the special forces of the Ukrainian Security Service. The chief military prosecutor Anatoly Matios talks about the investigation of this story:

- A criminal organization in the amount of about 20 people was arrested led by the commander of this company Tornado Onishchenko. They put on the form of units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and their violent actions, of which they are reasonably suspected, negatively set up the local population against all Ukrainian police and army units, which are conducting a difficult struggle for self -identification and upholding of national interests in the Luhansk region. They put their unhealthy desire for profit and brutal violence above state interests. And now we will have to work in this region for a long time to return the public confidence. To begin with, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs should at least apologize to this population and victims for their subordinates and their actions.

They put their unhealthy desire for profit and brutal violence above state interests

A week ago, Tornado was relocated from the Luhansk region to Donetsk, to the city of Slavyansk, to the base of the National Guard, where the process of disbanding the company is currently ongoing. Her fighters have not yet handed over their weapons and undergo a service check announced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The scandal around Tornado led to the next conflict between the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, whose leaders are now acting with mutual accusations. The results of the investigation in the Tornado case may be the reason for the resignation of Arsen Avakov from the post of Minister of the Interior. Anatoly Matios continues:

- How many lives could be saved, how many tears would not be shed if the correct personnel decisions had been made in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and had not been part of the armed units previously convicted, and even more so would not be appointed to senior positions. In two days of the investigation, it was identified and documented, with the receipt of evidence, more than 20 additional episodes of criminal actions of the Tornado fighters. These are illegal detention, torture, and rape. In a matter of minutes of the investigator’s work in this case, information about the criminal past Ruslan Onishchenko, who headed this unit, was received with the base of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Prior to this, Onishchenko was the deputy commander of the Shakhtersk battalion, also disbanded by Minister Avakov for looting and committing other crimes last fall.

Professor of the Kiev State University named after Taras Shevchenko Grigory Perepelitsa believes that, using the example of Tornado, the consequences of the lack of martial law in the country are clearly traced:

- The leadership of Ukraine has chosen the strategy of "neither war nor peace." As a result, this leads to the demoralization of the personnel of the national armed forces and other militarized Ukrainian formations located in the war zone. In fact, they set the task of not conducting any active hostilities, since this will be regarded as a violation of the Minsk agreements. This leads to the fact that Ukrainian positions are constantly shelling by militants and Russian troops, and our military are not able to answer. This leads to demoralization and, secondly, to criminalization. When there are no combat missions in such conditions, there is a great temptation related to smuggling. Both civil society and state security bodies indicate a large smuggling of goods between the occupied Donbass zone and the zone, which is liberated by Ukrainian forces. And this is a very dangerous trend, because this trend will lead to the complete collapse of the army of volunteer detachments.

Fighters of one of the volunteer units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine before being sent to the front. Kharkov, June 2015

Why is this happening? Because corruption is still a system of public administration, unfortunately. This is also used by the political forces that strive to be preserved in power in Ukraine, already in the new government, and therefore rely on the old structures of Viktor Yanukovych to be in this power without changing its system. Of course, volunteer detachments are precisely the most initiative people who went voluntarily to protect the country and want cardinal changes, conducting effective reforms, and these reforms are still not yet visible. Some political forces that are in power today regard this as a threat to lose this power.

Following the Tornado, the location in the Luhansk region also left the unit of the Chernigov Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose fighters can also be charged with serious crimes. The Ukrainian press also writes that at Tornado and other volunteer units at the stage of their formation, along with criminals, Russian saboteurs, designed to discredit Ukrainian troops.

- These are typical methods of warfare, when sabotage is also organized along with systematic military operations. And the sabotage war today is actively waged in parts of the GRU of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The agents are sent to volunteer units, and already in Ukrainian form they are engaged in looting, punitive actions in order to form persistent enmity of the local population to Ukrainian armed forces. These issues are dealt with by the Security Service of Ukraine, and they strive to "filter out" such units. Such data, as a rule, are closed, they are not published in the press. However, the work is underway and Russian saboteurs are caught. I can’t say how many saboteurs were arrested in Ukrainian units, but our media reported several cases, ”said Grigory Perepelitsa .