![]() ![]() The forces will also deploy outside Russia’s borders to support the Kremlin’s foreign interests, such as Syria or former Soviet vassals like Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, performing a range of law enforcement roles that might require more specialized equipment and tactics, SOBR forces can be likened to SWAT units in American policing.Īside from beating the locals into compliance, OMON and SOBR units equipped with machine guns and light-armored vehicles often patrol some of Russia’s more volatile regions, like Chechnya or the North Caucasus. In Putin’s Russia, where displaying a sign that reads “No War” can be grounds for treason, the availability of a full-time riot squad is a necessity. OMON units serve primarily as riot police, rapidly deploying to quell any unrest that might threaten civil order. ![]() In Russia, SOBR and OMON serve as a paramilitary police force akin to a gendarmerie, under the jurisdiction of the National Guard or Rosgvardia. Another estimated 20 were members of the “Spetsial’niy Otryad Bystrovo Reagirovaniya,” “Special Rapid Response Unit” in English, typically known by the moniker SOBR. However, of the Kemerovo crew, roughly 60 officers are believed to have been part of the “Otryad Mobil’nyy Osobogo Naznacheniya,” or “Special Purpose Mobile Unit,” better known as OMON. The exact number remains obscure, thanks almost exclusively to draconian measures imposed by the Kremlin to keep troop losses from being exposed. The starring cast for this bizarre story involves a group of roughly 80 men from two specialized police units from the Kemerovo towns of Krasnoyarsk and Novokuznetsk. Steel from the Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel plant alone helped produce over 50,000 tanks and 45,000 aircraft for the Red Army in World War II. T he saga begins over a month before the invasion, 2,000 miles from Ukraine, in the administrative state of Kemerovo Oblast in southwestern Siberia.Īn amalgamation of Russian settlements dating back thousands of years, Kemerovo is one of Russia’s most urbanized regions, with nearly 70% of the population living in one of nine principal cities dotting the lush and mountainous Tom River basin.īehind the Urals, the oblast serves as one of Russia’s most important industrial regions and is home to some of the largest coal deposits in the world. This is the incredible and tragic true story of a small group of Russian riot and SWAT cops who tried to storm the Ukrainian capital by themselves. The narratives provides an almost humorously macabre window into how what was once viewed as the 2nd most powerful military in the world ended up limping away from the Battle of Kyiv in humiliating defeat after only a month. POW interviews, conversations with various Ukrainian sources, family members, and open-source information, intermixed with some reasonable speculation, however, offers a more comprehensive understanding of one of the most bizarre and largely overlooked events in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The simple answer is staggering incompetence. Why did an odd medley of Russian riot police pull a real-life Leeroy Jenkins on the 2nd day of Russia’s invasion? Unfortunately for the ill-fated lawmen, they happened to be arriving at this awakening outside the most dangerous place in the world to be a Russian soldier: the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. The officers had known it conceptually, but now as the noxious fragrance of human conflict wafted over them, war’s reality became unmistakable. ![]() They say it’s not the sights or sounds, but the smell that first traumatizes those thrust into war. O n the morning of February 25, a motley crew of specialized Russian cops found themselves choking on the acrid stench of sulfur and the metallic, sickly-sweet smell of death. ![]()
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