Lviv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv: soldiers’ relatives protests continue in Ukraine

Soldiers’ mothers protest in Mykolaiv

In the last few days there have been angry protests by relatives of soldiers’ drafted into the “anti terrorist operation” in different parts of the country.

On September 2, relatives of mobilised soldiers attempted to prevent them from being sent to the front in the city of Mykolaiv, in Southern Ukraine, according to a report in the local paper Novosti-N. Special forces and military police had to push them aside to prevent the buses from leaving as seen in this video:

In Kyiv, on September 2, angry relatives of soldiers from the 51st Mechanised Brigade picketed the last session of the Rada (Parliament) before the election. According to a Ruptly report: “The families of Ukrainian soldiers captured in east Ukraine demanded the immediate return of their loved ones at a protest in front of Kiev’s Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday. In the course of the rally, two buses transporting traditional singers due to sing the national anthem at the start of the parliamentary session, were blocked from entering the building. A crowd of over 400 people gathered outside the parliament as two other rallies ran simultaneously, one for the Volya Party and another calling for an end to corruption.”

“The protesters, mostly mothers and wives, are also requesting an audience with President Petro Poroshenko to discuss the safe return of captured soldiers from the 51st Mechanised Brigade.”

Finally, on September 3, relatives and friends of the newly mobilized soldiers gathered outside the Lviv regional recruiting office, in Western Ukraine, where they demanded that they should not send the zone of the ATO as they had not received any training, according to a report in Zik.ua.

One of the mothers declared: “We are not opposed to our guys being called upon, but first they need to be trained and given body armour … so that they do not become cannon fodder on the battlefield.”

After a week of so-called training, the men had not seen any weaponry and their relatives had had to buy body armour for them, said the protesters.

The following video shows the protest: