Ukraine, short on military budget, starts fundraising drive

[unhappycamper]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-short-on-military-budget-starts-fundraising-drive/2014/04/19/0eba04d0-c7f6-11e3-8b9a-8e0977a24aeb_story.html?hpid=z1



Ukraine, short on military budget, starts fundraising drive
By Kathy Lally

KIEV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s new government inherited an army so bereft of modern equipment and training that when Russian troops entered Crimea and agitators stormed government offices in eastern Ukraine, the country proved helpless to protect its borders and citizens.

The corruption that had darkened all the nation’s institutions had provoked demonstrators to stand their ground in Kiev until the old leaders fled. But the depth of the damage took the country by surprise when the Crimean Peninsula was easily lost to Russian annexation last month, revealing a military profoundly weakened by theft and neglect.

“Our army has been systematically destroyed and disarmed,” Deputy Defense Minister Petro Mehed said at a briefing this past week, “and its best personnel dismissed.”

In the east, militants have occupied buildings in more than a dozen cities and on Saturday showed no signs of giving up their positions. The army was sent in and looked more anemic than ever when small knots of civilians managed to block armored personnel carriers simply by standing in front of them.

[bemildred]

1. Armed separatists gather outside home of Ukraine's richest man

DONETSK, Ukraine, May 25 (Reuters) - Scores of armed pro-Russian separatists massed outside the walled home of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, in the eastern city of Donetsk on Sunday as Ukrainians voted for a new president.

The rebels, roundly denounced by Akhmetov, have prevented voting in Donetsk, an industrial hub of a million people, and other parts of mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where they have declared "people's republics" outside Kiev's control.

Coal and steel billionaire Akhmetov, whose factories and mines employ about 300,000 people, denounced the rebels last week, accusing them of "genocide", and urged people to vote on Sunday despite intimidation and threats from the separatists.

The 47-year-old, who also owns Shakhtar Donetsk soccer club, was in the capital Kiev when about 200-300 separatists and supporters advanced on his residence, a spokesman said.

http://www.trust.org/item/20140525113811-fixu4/