DONETSK, June 4 (RIA Novosti) – Mercenaries and far-right militia from Ukraine’s National Guard opened fired at both Donetsk Republic’s forces and pro-Kiev guards posted at the Donetsk airport last Monday to incite hatred, a commander of the Vostok battalion in the Donetsk People’s Republic said Tuesday.
“Ultranationalists, mercenaries, they played out the Maidan scenario firing both ways to incite violence,” said Alexander Khodakovsky, former chief of Ukraine’s Security Service unit Alfa.
He told RIA Novosti that when the guards realized they were sniped at by people seemingly on their side they turned the anti-aircraft systems around and opened fire at the sniping position at the air control center.
Running battles erupted earlier this week in and around the international airport in Donetsk. Military helicopters were seen launching missiles at the positions of anti-Kiev forces.
Khodakovsky noted that Ukraine’s notorious National Guard, involved in that deadly onslaught, was formed from overzealous pro-West fighters who compensated for their lack of military training with exceptional fanaticism.
“They are ideological fellows who simply get enrolled in the National Guard, and they are ready to kill and cut our throats,” the commander added.
He said snipers have holed up at the airport and are preventing self-defense forces in Donetsk from recovering the bodies of their fallen. “We still can’t retrieve our dead from the airport. Can you imagine what it is like? It’s warm now.”
When asked how many bodies still remained on the site, Khodakovsky said, “at least ten.” He added Battalion Vostok lost up to 70 people in the May 26 clashes and in battles afterwards. “The figure isn’t precise because we don’t know what happened to the missing ones.”
Earlier, the Republic’s prime minister Alexander Borodai told RIA Novosti that snipers were using the corpses of dead activists and medical personnel as bait. The National Guard was shooting at anyone who tried to come near the bodies, he said. More than a dozen of the killed members of self-defense forces who are local citizens remained in the morgue, as of Thursday.
