WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.540 OK, let's unpack this, because usually when we 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:07.379 sit down to talk about a football team like soccer, 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:10.039 for our listeners who use that term, we're usually 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:12.359 talking about, I don't know, striker stats or 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:14.560 transfer windows. Maybe a manager getting sacked 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:16.879 if it's a dramatic week. Exactly. We're generally 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:19.940 not talking about special forces police units. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.120 No. Or armored vehicles or international war 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.960 crimes tribunals. Yeah. The Venn diagram of. 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:30.359 you know, Premier League sports and paramilitary 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:33.439 operations. It's basically nonexistent. It doesn't 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:36.039 usually have a lot of overlap. No. But today, 00:00:36.179 --> 00:00:38.159 we're looking at a file where those circles don't 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:40.320 just overlap. They're practically the exact same 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:42.920 circle. They are. And it's a story that really 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:45.799 forces you to hold two completely contradictory 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:48.799 ideas in your head at the exact same time. Which 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:51.439 is always the mark of a fascinating deep dive. 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:54.079 Completely. Because on one side, you have this 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.859 narrative of desperate, almost cinematic national 00:00:56.859 --> 00:00:59.240 defense. Right. Regular people just grabbing 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.520 rifles to save their city when the actual army 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.200 couldn't. But then on the exact other side, you 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:08.040 have a much darker narrative. A very dark narrative. 00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:11.400 Allegations of private armies, billionaire warlords, 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.859 torture, and just a total disregard for the rules 00:01:14.859 --> 00:01:17.939 of war. It's messy. It is. We are talking, of 00:01:17.939 --> 00:01:20.560 course, about the Dnipro One Regiment. And just 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:22.340 to set the ground rules for everyone listening 00:01:22.340 --> 00:01:24.359 right off the bat. Yeah, let's be clear about 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:27.700 our sources. Exactly. We are basing this entire 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:31.599 deep dive today on the Wikipedia entry for the 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:33.859 Dnipro 1 Regiment. That is our North Star for 00:01:33.859 --> 00:01:36.000 this conversation. It is. We're going to squeeze 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.379 every single drop of information out of that 00:01:38.379 --> 00:01:41.359 text to really understand how this unit evolved. 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:43.579 Because this isn't just military history. No. 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:46.659 It's a story about what happens when a country's 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:49.799 institutions practically collapse. And something 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:51.859 else. Something else. Yeah, something else rises 00:01:51.859 --> 00:01:54.560 up. to take their place. So let's set the stage 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.079 here. Take us back to April 2014. What does the 00:01:58.079 --> 00:01:59.859 map look like? What's the vibe on the ground? 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.959 Well, the vibe is basically existential dread. 00:02:03.099 --> 00:02:05.319 Yeah. You have to remember, Crimea has already 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:07.730 been annexed by Russia. And that had incredibly 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:11.650 fast. Dizzyingly fast. And now the unrest is 00:02:11.650 --> 00:02:14.229 spreading like a contagion into the Donbass region. 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:17.330 Donetsk, Luhansk. Exactly. Government buildings 00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:20.090 are literally being seized by pro -Russian separatists. 00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:22.250 And right next door to all of this chaos is the 00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:25.430 city of Dnipro. Right. And geographically, Dnipro 00:02:25.430 --> 00:02:27.509 isn't just another city on the map. It's the 00:02:27.509 --> 00:02:29.949 linchpin. It is the firewall. OK, explain that. 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:32.930 If Dnipro falls to the separatists, the entire 00:02:32.930 --> 00:02:35.860 southeast of Ukraine is essentially gone. Wow. 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.939 The logistical corridor is broken. The government 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:42.139 in Kyiv is looking at the map and realizing that 00:02:42.139 --> 00:02:44.659 Dnipro is the dam holding back the entire flood. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:47.439 But I mean, if the stakes are that high, where 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:49.800 is the army? Right. Where are the tanks and the 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:52.120 cavalry? And that is the critical point of this 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.659 whole story. The source material uses a very 00:02:54.659 --> 00:02:57.819 polite, very specific word to describe the state 00:02:57.819 --> 00:02:59.639 of the Ukrainian armed forces at that moment. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.360 What's the word? It says they had gaps. Gaps. 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:05.300 Gaps. That feels like a massive euphemism. It's 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:07.719 the understatement of the century. The reality 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:11.719 was that after years of corruption, just total 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:14.780 neglect and, frankly, infiltration. The regular 00:03:14.780 --> 00:03:17.139 army was hollowed out. Completely. They didn't 00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:18.520 have the manpower. They lacked organization. 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:21.789 And crucially. They didn't have the loyalty in 00:03:21.789 --> 00:03:24.569 some sectors to respond to a hybrid insurgency. 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:26.430 Because the police in a lot of these eastern 00:03:26.430 --> 00:03:28.849 towns were either defecting or just sort of standing 00:03:28.849 --> 00:03:30.909 aside. Yeah, exactly. They were just watching 00:03:30.909 --> 00:03:33.270 it happen. There was a total, absolute vacuum 00:03:33.270 --> 00:03:36.150 of power. And nature abhors a vacuum. Always. 00:03:36.250 --> 00:03:40.210 So into that void steps this new formation. But 00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:42.409 the classification here is really interesting 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:44.710 to me. The special police designation. Yeah. 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:48.250 The source defines DIPR -1 as a special tasks 00:03:48.250 --> 00:03:51.280 patrol police. regiment right they're subordinated 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:54.300 to the ministry of internal affairs not the ministry 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:57.060 of defense yeah why make them police instead 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:59.960 of soldiers that seems like a weird bureaucratic 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:02.860 choice in the middle of a war it's a legal workaround 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:05.259 a hack it's a total hack you can't just raise 00:04:05.259 --> 00:04:08.159 a private army overnight that would be unconstitutional 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:11.210 i assume Highly illegal, yes. But the Ministry 00:04:11.210 --> 00:04:13.650 of Internal Affairs has the authority to swear 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:16.449 in special police battalions relatively quickly. 00:04:16.629 --> 00:04:18.990 Oh, I see. It allowed the government to give 00:04:18.990 --> 00:04:22.189 weapons and actual legal standing to these volunteers 00:04:22.189 --> 00:04:25.329 without waiting for the slow, rusty machinery 00:04:25.329 --> 00:04:28.750 of a full military mobilization. So it was a 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:31.410 way to legalize the militia movement. Instantly. 00:04:31.629 --> 00:04:33.370 Precisely. It gave them badges to go with the 00:04:33.370 --> 00:04:35.490 guns. Okay. So the government essentially opens 00:04:35.490 --> 00:04:38.550 the armory doors and says, we need help. Anyone 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:40.569 who could hold a rifle. Who actually walks through 00:04:40.569 --> 00:04:44.449 those doors. Who joins Dnipro 1 in April 2014? 00:04:44.850 --> 00:04:47.089 This is where the sociological experiment begins, 00:04:47.329 --> 00:04:50.089 really. It was an incredibly eclectic mix. Okay. 00:04:50.310 --> 00:04:53.529 The source details that the personnel. included 00:04:53.529 --> 00:04:55.750 the people you would expect. You know, former 00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:57.790 police officers, military reserves. Guys who 00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:00.029 knew how to handle a weapon. Right. But then 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:02.689 it also included a very large number of political 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:05.129 activists from the Euromaidan movement. Okay, 00:05:05.189 --> 00:05:07.290 let's unpack this. Yeah. Because we have to remember, 00:05:07.389 --> 00:05:09.870 only a few months prior to this, the Euromaidan 00:05:09.870 --> 00:05:12.329 activists and the police were mortal enemies. 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:15.579 Mortal enemies fighting street battles in Kyiv. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:18.819 Exactly. The police were the oppressors of the 00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:21.899 old regime and the activists were the revolutionaries 00:05:21.899 --> 00:05:24.899 throwing cobblestones at them. Yep. And now they 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:27.860 are in the exact same unit. Wearing the exact 00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:30.500 same patch on their shoulders. That is wild. 00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:33.180 This is a forced marriage. Born of pure necessity. 00:05:33.420 --> 00:05:36.139 Wow. You have the enforcers of the old regime 00:05:36.139 --> 00:05:38.680 and the people who literally overthrew them suddenly 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.360 thrown together in a barrack. Work together or 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.759 the separatists take your city. Exactly. That 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:45.699 sounds like a recipe for some serious internal 00:05:45.699 --> 00:05:48.500 friction. Oh, it was. And it wasn't just internal. 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.480 The source notes that because of the heavy inclusion 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:54.360 of these activists, the unit was accused of having 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:57.240 nationalist views right from the start. OK. So 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.500 they weren't viewed as neutral peacekeepers or 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:01.680 just standard cops. They were viewed as ideological 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.839 soldiers. Yes. And that heavily colored how the 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:08.800 local population and obviously the enemy saw 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:12.139 them. But ideology is one thing. Right. Logistics 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:15.180 is another. Ideology doesn't buy body armor. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.240 It doesn't fill the gas tank of an armored truck. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:21.579 It does not. Which brings us to the money. Because 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:23.839 you really can't talk about Dnipro 1 without 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:26.259 talking about the wallet behind it. No, you can't. 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:29.000 We have to talk about Ihor Kolmoisky. Okay, set 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.860 him up for us. He was the governor of Dnipropetrovsk 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.899 Oblast at the time. And one of the most powerful 00:06:34.899 --> 00:06:37.480 oligarchs in the entire country. A massive, massive 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:40.500 figure. Yeah. And the source states that he is 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:44.110 believed to have spent... $10 million to create 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:47.509 this unit. $10 million. Yeah. Let's just let 00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:49.370 that number sit there for a second. It's huge. 00:06:49.529 --> 00:06:52.569 That is a staggering amount of private capital 00:06:52.569 --> 00:06:55.029 to pour into a government unit. Well, it completely 00:06:55.029 --> 00:06:57.209 changes the entire dynamic of the unit. Yeah. 00:06:57.290 --> 00:07:00.189 The funding was this weird hybrid model. How 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:02.569 did that work? Technically, the unit received 00:07:02.569 --> 00:07:05.209 some base funding from the Ministry of Internal 00:07:05.209 --> 00:07:08.029 Affairs. Like standard police salaries. Right. 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:11.319 But the source explicitly mentions a charitable 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:14.480 organization called Fund Dina Pro One. A charity. 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:17.759 Quote unquote. That was the primary vehicle for 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:20.839 the private money. So if I'm a soldier in this 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:23.920 unit. Right. I'm wearing a uniform issued by 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.120 the state. Yes. But I know that my high end helmet, 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:30.660 my tactical vest, maybe even my salary bonuses 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:33.620 are coming directly from the governor's private 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:36.800 charity. Exactly. So who am I really loyal to? 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:40.300 The president hundreds of miles away in Kiev 00:07:40.300 --> 00:07:43.000 or the guy signing the big checks right here 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.939 in Dnipro. And that was the exact fear. The nickname 00:07:45.939 --> 00:07:48.160 for the unit in the media quickly became the 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.800 Oligarchs Battalion. The Oligarchs Battalion. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.120 Yeah. It looked a lot like a return to feudalism. 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:56.540 Wow. Yeah. Like a local lord raising his own 00:07:56.540 --> 00:07:59.480 banner. Raising his own private army to defend 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:01.759 his fiefdom because the king in the capital was 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:04.230 too weak to do it. That's a great analogy. But 00:08:04.230 --> 00:08:06.189 I mean, was it effective? Extremely effective. 00:08:06.430 --> 00:08:09.370 Really? Because money moves infinitely faster 00:08:09.370 --> 00:08:11.670 than bureaucracy. That makes sense. While the 00:08:11.670 --> 00:08:13.790 regular army was waiting for procurement orders 00:08:13.790 --> 00:08:15.870 to be signed in triplicate in some office in 00:08:15.870 --> 00:08:18.389 Kiev, Kolomoisky could just write a check. Just 00:08:18.389 --> 00:08:20.670 buy radios and trucks out of pocket. Buy the 00:08:20.670 --> 00:08:24.259 radios, buy the trucks. by the thermal sites, 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:27.439 they were often significantly better equipped 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:29.819 than the regular army in those early days simply 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.220 because of that cash flow. But gear isn't everything. 00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:34.580 You actually need to know how to use it. That's 00:08:34.580 --> 00:08:37.559 the catch. And the timeline here is absurdly 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:40.419 fast. Yeah. They're founded in April. They're 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:43.539 operating outside their home oblast by May. That's 00:08:43.539 --> 00:08:45.700 lightning speed. How much training did these 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:48.200 guys actually get before going to the front lines? 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:50.679 This is one of the most shocking details in the 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:52.970 text, and it really highlights how desperate 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:55.990 the situation was okay the source says that before 00:08:55.990 --> 00:08:59.330 june 2014 the training duration was often as 00:08:59.330 --> 00:09:02.409 short as one week one week seven days i mean 00:09:02.409 --> 00:09:04.830 think about that basic training in the u .s army 00:09:04.830 --> 00:09:07.169 is what 10 weeks yeah and that's just to learn 00:09:07.169 --> 00:09:09.490 how to march fold your socks and clean your weapon 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:11.649 you can't learn unit tactics or communications 00:09:11.649 --> 00:09:14.629 in a week no you can't learn medical evacuation 00:09:14.629 --> 00:09:17.789 or complex rules of engagement in seven days 00:09:17.789 --> 00:09:19.950 you can barely break in your new boots in seven 00:09:19.950 --> 00:09:22.980 days seriously it means they were sending essentially 00:09:22.980 --> 00:09:25.840 untrained civilians directly into a very hot 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.000 combat zone. They were just relying entirely 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.159 on high motivation to compensate for incredibly 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.480 low skill. Exactly. Though the source does mention 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:38.299 they recognized this and tried to bring in outside 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:40.779 help to fix it quickly. Who did they bring in? 00:09:40.980 --> 00:09:43.580 They claimed to have hired foreign military advisors. 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:46.940 From where? Specifically from Romania and Georgia. 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:49.419 OK, Romania is NATO. That makes some sense. But 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:51.879 why Georgia? That seems very specific. It actually 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:54.419 makes perfect strategic sense. If you look at 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:56.139 the recent history. OK, break that down for me. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.500 Georgia had fought a direct war against Russia 00:09:58.500 --> 00:10:01.769 in 2008. Oh, right. The invasion of Georgia. 00:10:01.830 --> 00:10:04.409 Yes. So they had recent firsthand experience 00:10:04.409 --> 00:10:07.629 with Russian hybrid tactics. The provocateurs, 00:10:07.970 --> 00:10:11.250 the unmarked soldiers. The roadblocks, the massive 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:13.649 disinformation campaigns. They understood the 00:10:13.649 --> 00:10:16.490 enemy arguably better than anyone in NATO did 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:18.190 at the end of the very time. That's a really 00:10:18.190 --> 00:10:19.990 good point. So bringing in Georgian advisors 00:10:19.990 --> 00:10:23.710 was a way to inject highly relevant combat tested 00:10:23.710 --> 00:10:26.370 knowledge into these recruits very, very quickly. 00:10:26.789 --> 00:10:29.990 But even with top -tier Georgian advice, a week 00:10:29.990 --> 00:10:32.370 is still a week. It's still just a week. So they 00:10:32.370 --> 00:10:35.690 finish this crash course and they deploy. What 00:10:35.690 --> 00:10:37.649 were they actually doing in those early days? 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:40.590 Initially, the mission profile was technically 00:10:40.590 --> 00:10:44.149 police work, but very widely defined. How widely? 00:10:44.429 --> 00:10:46.830 The source says their primary duty was to control 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:49.389 movement in southeastern Ukraine. Okay. They 00:10:49.389 --> 00:10:52.409 were manning checkpoints. So stopping cars, checking 00:10:52.409 --> 00:10:55.070 trunks, looking for weapons. Right. They were 00:10:55.070 --> 00:10:58.720 the filter. Their job was to stop saboteurs and 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:01.399 separatist fighters from moving easily between 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.080 cities. Because if you stop the flow of guns, 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:06.759 you essentially starve the insurgency. Exactly. 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.399 And there's also a specific, very interesting 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:11.980 note here about railroads. What about them? Russian 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:15.419 sources, specifically Vesti .ua, reported that 00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:18.639 DINIPRO -1 took active control of the railway 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:20.960 system in their sector. Really? Yeah. That's 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:23.860 a massive strategic move. It's huge because in 00:11:23.860 --> 00:11:26.460 Eastern Europe, War runs on rails. Sure, for 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:29.080 moving tanks and heavy artillery. If you control 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:31.179 the train stations and the tracks, you control 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:34.360 the heavy logistics. You get to decide what moves 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:36.259 in and out of the industrial heartland of the 00:11:36.259 --> 00:11:38.759 country. But they didn't just stay at these checkpoints 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:41.240 and train stations for long, did they? No. They 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:44.080 got pulled into the absolute meat grinder. Because 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:47.019 the war escalated. It did. The transition from 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:50.100 patrol police to essentially light infantry happened 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:52.559 almost immediately. Right. The source notes they 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:54.519 fought in the Battle of Mariupol. Which was a 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:56.600 success for Ukraine, right? Yes, a major one. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:59.220 Yeah. They helped hold that city. And Mariupol 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:02.139 is a critical port. Keeping it in Ukrainian hands 00:12:02.139 --> 00:12:05.240 was a vital victory in 2014. But then came August. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:08.200 Then came August. The Battle of Yelovaisk. Yeah, 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:11.360 Yelovaisk. That name carries a massive amount 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:13.940 of weight in Ukrainian military history. It's 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:16.799 seen as a profound tragedy from what I understand. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:19.340 It is. It was a massive encirclement. Regular 00:12:19.340 --> 00:12:22.240 Russian military forces, not just proxy separatists, 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:25.039 crossed the border and completely surrounded 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.919 the Ukrainian units. Including Dnipro -1. Including 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:31.519 Dnipro -1. Practically a massacre. And you really 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:33.580 have to remember the context we just discussed. 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:37.899 These guys, some of them with only a few weeks 00:12:37.899 --> 00:12:40.580 of overall experience. Just a few weeks removed 00:12:40.580 --> 00:12:43.860 from being activists or IT guys. Right. They 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:46.539 are suddenly facing down coordinated artillery 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:49.820 barrages and actual tank columns. It went from 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:53.059 stopping suspicious sedans at a checkpoint to 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:56.360 total conventional warfare overnight. Very quickly. 00:12:56.779 --> 00:12:59.779 And it really illustrates that gap filling role 00:12:59.779 --> 00:13:01.559 we talked about at the very beginning. Yeah. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:03.320 They weren't just guarding the rear lines. They 00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:05.860 ended up as the tip of the spear simply because 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:08.539 there was no other spear available to use. They 00:13:08.539 --> 00:13:11.659 were buying time with blood. Exactly. Now, here 00:13:11.659 --> 00:13:14.000 is where the story gets really complex. The pivot. 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:17.419 Yeah. Because while the unit is fighting for 00:13:17.419 --> 00:13:20.200 its life in the east, the leadership of Dnipro 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.240 1 starts looking at a totally different kind 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.519 of battlefield. The political battlefield. Yes. 00:13:24.759 --> 00:13:27.720 This is the classic warlord to politician pipeline. 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.100 Is that a common thing? You see it in a lot of 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:32.639 civil conflicts or times of extreme national 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.840 crisis. When the state institutions are weak, 00:13:36.019 --> 00:13:38.460 the people who actually hold the guns and win 00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:41.899 the battles become the new de facto authority 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:44.830 figures. They have the real power. Right. Let's 00:13:44.830 --> 00:13:46.549 look at Yuri Berezo, for example. He was the 00:13:46.549 --> 00:13:49.610 commander of Dnipro -1. He was. So in the October 00:13:49.610 --> 00:13:52.529 2014 parliamentary election. Keep in mind, this 00:13:52.529 --> 00:13:55.049 is just mere months after the unit was even formed 00:13:55.049 --> 00:13:57.350 in a basement. Right. Berezo runs for office. 00:13:57.750 --> 00:14:00.590 He joins the People's Front Party. OK. And he 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:03.409 isn't just some fringe candidate. He is placed 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:06.509 10th on their national election list. 10th. Now, 00:14:06.570 --> 00:14:08.230 for listeners who might not be familiar with 00:14:08.230 --> 00:14:10.850 how proportional representation systems work, 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.730 being number 10 on a major party list is a very 00:14:13.730 --> 00:14:15.990 big deal. It's essentially a golden ticket. Right. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.019 It practically guarantees you a seat in parliament. 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:20.120 You don't even really have to go out and campaign 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:23.019 door to door. So in the span of roughly six months, 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:26.460 Bereza goes from organizing a localized volunteer 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:29.700 militia to sitting in the Verkhovna Rada as a 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:32.580 national lawmaker. That is a staggering ascent 00:14:32.580 --> 00:14:35.340 to power. And he wasn't the only one from the 00:14:35.340 --> 00:14:37.720 unit to make that jump. Right. The source also 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:41.100 highlights Volodymyr Peresuk. Peresuk is a truly 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:42.980 fascinating character. He was a rank and file 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:44.899 member of the unit, but he was already famous 00:14:44.899 --> 00:14:48.009 nationally. Why was he famous before the election? 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:52.289 He gave a very fiery, impromptu speech on the 00:14:52.289 --> 00:14:55.409 Maidan stage during the revolution that many 00:14:55.409 --> 00:14:57.629 historians actually credit with changing the 00:14:57.629 --> 00:15:00.470 entire course of the uprising. Oh, wow. Yeah. 00:15:00.549 --> 00:15:03.789 So he had huge name recognition. He ran for a 00:15:03.789 --> 00:15:06.250 constituency seat in a place called Yavariv. 00:15:06.669 --> 00:15:09.269 Not on a party list, but directly elected by 00:15:09.269 --> 00:15:11.450 the people. Exactly. And how did he do? He won 00:15:11.450 --> 00:15:14.490 big. A total landslide. Like what kind of numbers? 00:15:14.769 --> 00:15:17.830 He secured over 56 % of the vote. In a multi 00:15:17.830 --> 00:15:20.450 -candidate race, that's a massive mandate. It 00:15:20.450 --> 00:15:23.090 really is. It shows just how intensely popular 00:15:23.090 --> 00:15:25.990 these fighter activists were with the general 00:15:25.990 --> 00:15:27.929 public at the time. The public didn't want the 00:15:27.929 --> 00:15:30.509 old professional politicians anymore. No, they 00:15:30.509 --> 00:15:32.490 felt the politicians had failed them. They wanted 00:15:32.490 --> 00:15:34.429 fighters. They wanted people who had bled for 00:15:34.429 --> 00:15:37.590 the country. But... Parasyuk didn't exactly switch 00:15:37.590 --> 00:15:40.250 seamlessly into diplomat mode once he got into 00:15:40.250 --> 00:15:42.549 the halls of parliament, did he? Not at all. 00:15:42.669 --> 00:15:45.809 The source very dryly notes that he was involved 00:15:45.809 --> 00:15:50.720 in the, quote, first brawl. Of course he was. 00:15:50.899 --> 00:16:02.519 It really does. You have men who are completely 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:05.360 accustomed to solving immediate problems with 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.879 physical force. Suddenly sitting in committee 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.500 hearings. Right. It completely changed the tone 00:16:10.500 --> 00:16:13.360 of Ukrainian politics. It militarized the political 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:16.190 discourse. But it also raises a really massive 00:16:16.190 --> 00:16:18.889 conflict of interest question. Yeah, it does. 00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:21.149 If the commanders of these heavily armed police 00:16:21.149 --> 00:16:24.250 battalions are also sitting in parliament making 00:16:24.250 --> 00:16:27.230 the laws. Who is actually overseeing the battalion? 00:16:27.309 --> 00:16:29.269 Exactly. Who holds them accountable if they cross 00:16:29.269 --> 00:16:31.490 the line? And that lack of clear accountability 00:16:31.490 --> 00:16:34.289 leads us directly into the much darker side of 00:16:34.289 --> 00:16:37.009 this file. Yes, we have to pivot now. We do. 00:16:37.129 --> 00:16:39.509 Because we've established the genuine heroism, 00:16:39.529 --> 00:16:42.269 the desperate defense of cities, the rapid political 00:16:42.269 --> 00:16:45.909 rise. The foundational myth. Right. But we cannot 00:16:45.909 --> 00:16:48.980 tell this story. honestly, based on our source 00:16:48.980 --> 00:16:52.100 material, without looking at the severe allegations 00:16:52.100 --> 00:16:54.960 of misconduct. And we're not talking about minor 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:56.860 disciplinary infractions here. We aren't talking 00:16:56.860 --> 00:16:59.740 about guys missing curfew. No, we are looking 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:02.580 at formal reports from the United Nations and 00:17:02.580 --> 00:17:05.700 from Amnesty International. These are highly 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:08.539 documented allegations of serious human rights 00:17:08.539 --> 00:17:10.839 violations. And I want to be incredibly clear 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:13.619 to everyone listening. We are reporting these 00:17:13.619 --> 00:17:16.460 exact details as they appear in the source material. 00:17:16.619 --> 00:17:19.019 Right. We are not taking sides. We aren't judging 00:17:19.019 --> 00:17:21.660 the fog of war. But we aren't looking away from 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:23.720 the text either. We have to cover what the source 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:26.039 provides. Exactly. So let's start with the U 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:29.400 .N. reports from 2016. They documented a specific, 00:17:29.619 --> 00:17:32.440 very brutal incident in a town called Avdivka 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.680 in January 2015. Yeah. This section is a genuinely 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:38.319 tough read. Tell us what happened. The UN monitoring 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.940 mission documented that members of DINIPRO -1 00:17:40.940 --> 00:17:44.200 raided a private house in Avdivka. Okay. The 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:46.900 report details that they severely beat a man 00:17:46.900 --> 00:17:50.180 there. But it gets much more specific and much 00:17:50.180 --> 00:17:52.160 more disturbing. What else did they do? They 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.180 subjected him to asphyxiation with a plastic 00:17:54.180 --> 00:17:57.400 bag. I mean, that is torture. Yes. There is no 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:01.200 legal or moral gray area there. That is a war 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:04.079 crime. And it didn't stop there. The UN report 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:06.579 also states they performed a mock execution. 00:18:06.900 --> 00:18:10.009 For those who might not know. What exactly does 00:18:10.009 --> 00:18:12.710 a mock execution entail? It generally means putting 00:18:12.710 --> 00:18:15.529 a loaded gun to someone's head or firing a shot 00:18:15.529 --> 00:18:18.369 just past their ear, specifically to make them 00:18:18.369 --> 00:18:20.630 firmly believe they are about to be killed in 00:18:20.630 --> 00:18:23.269 that exact second. Does pure psychological torture? 00:18:23.549 --> 00:18:26.250 Yes. It is designed to completely and fundamentally 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:29.490 break a human being's mind. And the U .N. grouped 00:18:29.490 --> 00:18:31.809 Dnipro -1 with some other battalions in this 00:18:31.809 --> 00:18:33.589 report, too, right? They did. They grouped them 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.009 with other high -profile volunteer units like 00:18:36.009 --> 00:18:39.500 IDAR, KIV -1, and KIV -2. And what were the broader 00:18:39.500 --> 00:18:42.059 accusations against that group? The U .N. accused 00:18:42.059 --> 00:18:44.559 them of systemic enforced disappearances and 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:47.279 arbitrary detention. Okay, enforced disappearance. 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:49.819 That's a very sterile diplomatic legal term. 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.099 It is. What does that actually mean for the victim 00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:55.140 on the ground? It means you are grabbed off the 00:18:55.140 --> 00:18:57.359 street or pulled out of your living room in the 00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.539 middle of the night. No arrest wards. Zero paperwork. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.680 There is no phone call to your lawyer. Your family 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:05.160 has absolutely no idea where you are or who took 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:07.519 you. You're just gone. You're thrown in a basement 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:09.880 or a shipping container somewhere, operating 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:11.859 completely outside the protection of any legal 00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:15.500 system. You essentially cease to exist as a citizen 00:19:15.500 --> 00:19:18.579 with rights. And there is a very specific case 00:19:18.579 --> 00:19:20.619 mentioned in the Wikipedia article that highlights 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:23.660 exactly this dynamic. Yes. The case of Vladimir 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:27.599 Komatitsky. Right. He was a local official, specifically 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:31.039 the former deputy mayor of the city of Slovyansk. 00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:34.230 Okay. What happened to him? The U .N. allegation 00:19:34.230 --> 00:19:37.369 is that he was kidnapped by three soldiers and 00:19:37.369 --> 00:19:40.009 a commander of the Dnipro -1 regiment. Do we 00:19:40.009 --> 00:19:42.289 know the commander's name? Interestingly, no. 00:19:42.609 --> 00:19:46.589 The U .N. report, as cited in our source, refers 00:19:46.589 --> 00:19:49.569 to the commander only by a pseudonym. Mr. A. 00:19:49.789 --> 00:19:51.890 Right, Mr. A. And what was the outcome for the 00:19:51.890 --> 00:19:54.829 deputy mayor? Did he ever come home? No. The 00:19:54.829 --> 00:19:57.470 report states he was murdered later that exact 00:19:57.470 --> 00:20:00.750 same day. So we have a brazen kidnapping and 00:20:00.750 --> 00:20:03.490 a murder of a public official by members of a 00:20:03.490 --> 00:20:06.650 state -sanctioned police regiment. Yes. Was there 00:20:06.650 --> 00:20:09.470 a trial? Was anyone held accountable for this? 00:20:09.650 --> 00:20:12.549 Well, the report notes that the accused men were 00:20:12.549 --> 00:20:14.529 eventually charged by the authorities. Okay, 00:20:14.589 --> 00:20:16.890 so the system worked. But look at the specific 00:20:16.890 --> 00:20:19.309 charges. What were they? They were formally charged 00:20:19.309 --> 00:20:22.730 with, quote, illegal confinement and, quote, 00:20:22.869 --> 00:20:26.079 illegally handling arms. Wait. They kidnapped 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:28.740 and killed a man. And the harshest charge the 00:20:28.740 --> 00:20:31.339 prosecutor brings is illegally handling arms. 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:33.859 It's baffling. That sounds like getting a speeding 00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:35.960 ticket after you rob a bank with a machine gun. 00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:39.759 Exactly. And the U .N. report explicitly highlights 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:42.339 and questions that massive discrepancy. I would 00:20:42.339 --> 00:20:45.900 hope so. It asks the very obvious question. Why 00:20:45.900 --> 00:20:48.720 were there absolutely no war crimes charges or 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:51.559 even direct murder charges, given that the victim 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:54.289 was clearly killed while in their custody? What 00:20:54.289 --> 00:20:55.910 does that tell us about the justice system at 00:20:55.910 --> 00:20:58.630 that time? It suggests a catastrophic failure. 00:20:58.849 --> 00:21:02.089 Either the local prosecutors were quite literally 00:21:02.089 --> 00:21:06.369 too afraid for their own lives to touch these 00:21:06.369 --> 00:21:08.569 heavily armed hero units. Which is plausible. 00:21:08.829 --> 00:21:11.769 Highly plausible. Or the legal system was just 00:21:11.769 --> 00:21:14.269 completely too broken and overwhelmed by the 00:21:14.269 --> 00:21:17.400 war to function normally. But regardless of the 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:20.039 reason, it creates a terrifying culture of impunity. 00:21:20.259 --> 00:21:22.759 Total impunity. Because if a unit realizes they 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:24.839 can get away with the murder of a deputy mayor 00:21:24.839 --> 00:21:27.380 with a slap on the wrist, what else are they 00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:29.740 going to feel emboldened to do? Precisely. The 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:31.950 guardrails are gone. And that leads us to the 00:21:31.950 --> 00:21:34.650 other major international report we have to discuss, 00:21:34.849 --> 00:21:37.130 the one from Amnesty International in December 00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:40.369 2014. Right. Now, this one is different. It isn't 00:21:40.369 --> 00:21:43.269 about direct physical violence or torture. It's 00:21:43.269 --> 00:21:45.509 about food. It's about the weaponization of logistics. 00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:49.210 Explain the Amnesty report. What's the core incident? 00:21:49.430 --> 00:21:52.029 The report details that Dnipro -1, acting alongside 00:21:52.029 --> 00:21:54.730 a few other battalions, was intentionally blocking 00:21:54.730 --> 00:21:57.650 humanitarian aid convoys. Who was sending the 00:21:57.650 --> 00:21:59.880 aid? He was sent by another prominent oligarch, 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:03.380 Renat Akhmatov. Okay, so you have rival oligarchs 00:22:03.380 --> 00:22:05.920 involved now? Yes, the politics are very tangled. 00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:08.660 But these convoys were full of food and clothing, 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:11.140 and they were trying to reach pavilions trapped 00:22:11.140 --> 00:22:13.420 in the separatist -controlled areas of the Donbass. 00:22:13.740 --> 00:22:16.259 And Dnipro -1 set up roadblocks to stop them. 00:22:16.380 --> 00:22:19.619 They physically turned the trucks around. Now... 00:22:20.029 --> 00:22:21.930 Let's play devil's advocate for just a second 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:23.630 because we want to understand the complete picture. 00:22:23.750 --> 00:22:26.730 What was the unit's actual justification for 00:22:26.730 --> 00:22:29.829 doing this? Why block food trucks heading to 00:22:29.829 --> 00:22:33.319 a war zone? Their argument? internally was entirely 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:36.059 tactical. They claimed that they strongly believed 00:22:36.059 --> 00:22:38.240 that food and winter clothing would ultimately 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:41.140 end up in the wrong hands. Meaning the separatist 00:22:41.140 --> 00:22:43.079 fighters. Right. They thought the militants would 00:22:43.079 --> 00:22:45.180 just seize the aid off the trucks to feed their 00:22:45.180 --> 00:22:47.579 own frontline troops, or they would sell it on 00:22:47.579 --> 00:22:50.619 the black market to buy more ammunition. So their 00:22:50.619 --> 00:22:54.279 logic was essentially, we cannot allow vital 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:57.259 supplies to cross our lines and potentially sustain 00:22:57.259 --> 00:23:00.819 the enemy army. Exactly. Which, historically 00:23:00.819 --> 00:23:03.559 speaking, in the brutal calculus of war, is a 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:06.720 very standard siege tactic. Right. You starve 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.220 the enemy garrison until they surrender. But 00:23:09.220 --> 00:23:11.039 the massive problem with that logic here, as 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:13.599 Amnesty pointed out very aggressively, is that 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:16.140 you aren't just starving the enemy garrison. 00:23:16.430 --> 00:23:18.730 You are starving the entire civilian population 00:23:18.730 --> 00:23:22.009 locked in there with them. Exactly. Amnesty noted 00:23:22.009 --> 00:23:24.650 in their report that over half the population 00:23:24.650 --> 00:23:27.750 in those separatist -controlled areas depended 00:23:27.750 --> 00:23:31.710 almost entirely on this specific food aid to 00:23:31.710 --> 00:23:34.259 survive the winter. We're talking about incredibly 00:23:34.259 --> 00:23:37.180 vulnerable people. Pensioners, young children, 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.019 patients in hospitals. So by blocking the trucks, 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:42.440 whatever the tactical justification, they were 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:44.900 ultimately punishing the most defenseless people 00:23:44.900 --> 00:23:47.599 in the conflict zone. And Amnesty did not mince 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:49.480 words about the legality of this. What did they 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.859 say? The acting director of Amnesty International 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:55.180 at the time formally stated that, quote, using 00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:57.599 starvation of civilians as a method of warfare 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:01.200 is a war crime, end quote. That is such a heavy, 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:04.759 heavy label to apply. A war crime. Is the ultimate 00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:07.380 legal condemnation in an armed conflict. And 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:10.259 it really forces you to grapple with the complex 00:24:10.259 --> 00:24:13.059 legacy of this unit. It's a dizzying contrast. 00:24:13.769 --> 00:24:17.069 It really is. You have the Battle of Ilovaisk 00:24:17.069 --> 00:24:20.549 where these exact same guys are bleeding out 00:24:20.549 --> 00:24:22.390 in trenches, dying to protect their homeland 00:24:22.390 --> 00:24:25.210 from a foreign invasion. Utter heroism. And then 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:27.710 you turn the page of the Wikipedia article and 00:24:27.710 --> 00:24:30.089 you have these checkpoints where they are allegedly 00:24:30.089 --> 00:24:33.829 torturing detainees and intentionally starving 00:24:33.829 --> 00:24:36.410 civilian populations. It represents the ultimate 00:24:36.410 --> 00:24:39.250 double -edged sword of relying on these rapid 00:24:39.250 --> 00:24:42.549 volunteer formations in a crisis. Because they 00:24:42.549 --> 00:24:45.250 operate outside the normal rules. Yes. They operate 00:24:45.250 --> 00:24:47.390 with a massive degree of operational autonomy. 00:24:47.630 --> 00:24:49.970 And that autonomy is exactly what allows them 00:24:49.970 --> 00:24:52.690 to be so fast, so flexible, and so effective 00:24:52.690 --> 00:24:55.490 in the early days. But that exact same autonomy. 00:24:55.650 --> 00:24:57.950 Allows them to completely ignore the rules of 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:00.750 armed conflict. Yeah. When you have a unit heavily 00:25:00.750 --> 00:25:03.690 funded by a regional oligarch. Check. Commanded 00:25:03.690 --> 00:25:06.230 by a guy who is now a national politician. Check. 00:25:06.430 --> 00:25:09.490 And filled with highly motivated but. Basically 00:25:09.490 --> 00:25:13.369 untrained volunteers with deep ideological grievances. 00:25:13.529 --> 00:25:15.329 Discipline regarding international humanitarian 00:25:15.329 --> 00:25:18.269 law is inevitably going to break down. It's a 00:25:18.269 --> 00:25:20.849 structural guarantee of abuse eventually. And 00:25:20.849 --> 00:25:22.990 obviously the other side of the conflict, the 00:25:22.990 --> 00:25:25.509 Russians took notice of all this. They absolutely 00:25:25.509 --> 00:25:28.029 did. And they weaponized that reputation. How 00:25:28.029 --> 00:25:31.710 so? Well, jump forward a bit. The source notes 00:25:31.710 --> 00:25:35.769 that in 2023, Russia officially legally designated 00:25:35.769 --> 00:25:39.839 Dnipro -1 as a terrorist organization. Now, obviously, 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:42.859 given the context of the 2022 full -scale invasion, 00:25:43.259 --> 00:25:46.400 that designation is heavily laced with state 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:49.160 propaganda. Undoubtedly. It serves a political 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.859 purpose for Moscow. But at the same time, it 00:25:51.859 --> 00:25:54.740 reflects a reality about how these specific volunteer 00:25:54.740 --> 00:25:57.200 units were viewed by their adversaries. Right. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:59.400 They weren't seen by the separatists or the Russians 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:02.480 as just another standard unit of regular soldiers. 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:04.740 They were seen as something much more dangerous. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:06.700 They were the boogeymen. They were the ideological 00:26:06.700 --> 00:26:09.420 hardliners. I want to shift gears slightly here 00:26:09.420 --> 00:26:11.740 back to the actual structural evolution of the 00:26:11.740 --> 00:26:14.440 unit. OK. Because despite all of this massive 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:17.940 controversy, the wild politics, the horrific 00:26:17.940 --> 00:26:20.700 U .N. reports, the brutal battles. They didn't 00:26:20.700 --> 00:26:22.799 just fade away or disband. No, they actually 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:25.690 kept growing. They evolved significantly. They 00:26:25.690 --> 00:26:28.289 didn't just stay a ragtag group of guys with 00:26:28.289 --> 00:26:31.529 AK -47s riding around in unarmored pickup trucks 00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:34.130 forever. Not at all. The source details their 00:26:34.130 --> 00:26:36.049 structural composition later in their history. 00:26:36.130 --> 00:26:39.670 And it is actually quite a robust, complex military 00:26:39.670 --> 00:26:43.410 organization. What did it look like as they professionalized? 00:26:43.609 --> 00:26:46.190 Well, for one, they eventually formed a first 00:26:46.190 --> 00:26:47.990 armored company. OK, so they finally got the 00:26:47.990 --> 00:26:51.289 heavy metal. Exactly. Tanks, infantry fighting 00:26:51.289 --> 00:26:54.059 vehicles, heavy support. They weren't just light 00:26:54.059 --> 00:26:55.819 infantry anymore. And they were pretty early 00:26:55.819 --> 00:26:58.259 adopters of new tech, too, weren't they? Very 00:26:58.259 --> 00:27:01.079 early. The source specifically mentions they 00:27:01.079 --> 00:27:04.529 formed the third... Aerosvitka group. Aerosvitka. 00:27:04.609 --> 00:27:07.430 That means aerial reconnaissance. Yes. Drone 00:27:07.430 --> 00:27:10.809 units. And this was years before the 2022 invasion, 00:27:11.029 --> 00:27:13.829 where drones are everywhere. Exactly. This was 00:27:13.829 --> 00:27:16.009 back when battlefield drone warfare was really 00:27:16.009 --> 00:27:18.210 just starting to become a staple. It wasn't standard 00:27:18.210 --> 00:27:20.910 issue yet. But Dnipro -1 was already integrating 00:27:20.910 --> 00:27:23.710 that capability into their operations. They clearly 00:27:23.710 --> 00:27:26.170 understood that the immediate future of war was 00:27:26.170 --> 00:27:28.640 going to involve looking down from the sky. Smart. 00:27:28.700 --> 00:27:30.599 The source also mentioned that they had specific 00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:32.920 companies named after different regions of Ukraine. 00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:37.200 Yes. They had units named Donetsk -1, Krim, and 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:39.339 Krivbus. Krim. That's the Ukrainian word for 00:27:39.339 --> 00:27:42.460 Crimea, right? That is. And that is a very intentional, 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:45.940 very powerful branding choice by the unit leadership. 00:27:46.339 --> 00:27:49.480 Tell me why. By establishing a combat company 00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:52.619 specifically named Crimea. They were creating 00:27:52.619 --> 00:27:56.200 a very visible home within the regiment for refugees 00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:59.059 and volunteers who had fled that occupied peninsula. 00:27:59.259 --> 00:28:02.140 Oh, wow. That's actually really moving. It gave 00:28:02.140 --> 00:28:05.140 those displaced fighters a highly specific identity 00:28:05.140 --> 00:28:08.200 within the much larger national struggle. It 00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:09.980 was a statement of intent. Exactly. It was a 00:28:09.980 --> 00:28:12.500 way of saying to the public, we absolutely haven't 00:28:12.500 --> 00:28:14.619 forgotten where you were from and we are fighting 00:28:14.619 --> 00:28:16.859 to eventually get you back. So if we fast forward 00:28:16.859 --> 00:28:20.509 to February 2022. The full -scale Russian invasion 00:28:20.509 --> 00:28:23.529 begins. The entire country is under attack. Right. 00:28:23.609 --> 00:28:26.509 Is Dnipro -1 still a relevant fighting force 00:28:26.509 --> 00:28:28.710 at that point? Very much so. The Wikipedia entry 00:28:28.710 --> 00:28:31.029 specifically highlights their combat role in 00:28:31.029 --> 00:28:32.630 the liberation of Lyman. And that took place 00:28:32.630 --> 00:28:35.609 in September and October of 2022, correct? Yes. 00:28:35.690 --> 00:28:38.529 And the retaking of Lyman was a huge strategic 00:28:38.529 --> 00:28:41.390 win for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. It was 00:28:41.390 --> 00:28:44.769 a massive operational success. It forced a major 00:28:44.769 --> 00:28:47.440 Russian retreat. And the fact that Dnipro -1 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:49.619 was actively participating in that operation 00:28:49.619 --> 00:28:52.460 shows how they were being utilized. Yes, they 00:28:52.460 --> 00:28:54.900 were still being used as a frontline strike force. 00:28:55.140 --> 00:28:57.000 They weren't just comfortably patrolling the 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:59.740 rear echelon back home in Dnipro. No, they were 00:28:59.740 --> 00:29:01.839 out there actively pushing the main frontline 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:05.660 eastward. But, as with all things in military 00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:09.759 history, eras eventually end. They do. Transformations 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:12.359 happen. So what exactly happened in December 00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:16.930 2023? That date marks the end of an era. The 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.670 era of the fully independent standalone volunteer 00:29:19.670 --> 00:29:21.950 regiment sort of officially came to a close. 00:29:22.069 --> 00:29:24.450 Because they were absorbed. Yes. The source states 00:29:24.450 --> 00:29:26.950 that Dnipro -1 was reassigned and permanently 00:29:26.950 --> 00:29:29.509 absorbed into the loot brigade. The loot brigade. 00:29:29.930 --> 00:29:32.529 Lut means fury or rage in Ukrainian, doesn't 00:29:32.529 --> 00:29:34.890 it? It does. The Fury Brigade. What kind of unit 00:29:34.890 --> 00:29:37.089 is that? The Lut Brigade is a relatively new 00:29:37.089 --> 00:29:40.029 formation. It's officially designated as a combined 00:29:40.029 --> 00:29:42.769 assault brigade of the National Police. OK, so 00:29:42.769 --> 00:29:44.670 they're still under the police umbrella, but 00:29:44.670 --> 00:29:48.049 organized as an assault brigade. Right. And this 00:29:48.049 --> 00:29:51.170 merger is a totally crucial evolution in the 00:29:51.170 --> 00:29:53.849 broader story of the Ukrainian military. Why 00:29:53.849 --> 00:29:56.670 is it so significant? It essentially signifies 00:29:56.670 --> 00:29:59.769 the state. Finally achieving full centralization 00:29:59.769 --> 00:30:02.809 of these incredibly diverse volunteer units. 00:30:02.930 --> 00:30:04.630 Oh, I get it. So they're cleaning up the organizational 00:30:04.630 --> 00:30:07.269 chart. Exactly. Instead of having all these standalone 00:30:07.269 --> 00:30:09.750 regiments, each with their own unique internal 00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:11.970 cultures, their own idiosyncratic leadership, 00:30:12.269 --> 00:30:15.269 and potentially their own shadowy private funding 00:30:15.269 --> 00:30:17.789 streams. They are bringing them all firmly under 00:30:17.789 --> 00:30:20.970 one massive standardized professional command 00:30:20.970 --> 00:30:23.769 structure. It's the professionalization of the 00:30:23.769 --> 00:30:27.319 entire 2014 volunteer movement. Precisely. You 00:30:27.319 --> 00:30:30.180 take all that raw, chaotic energy and unmatched 00:30:30.180 --> 00:30:32.640 combat experience, and you finally put it into 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.000 a formal, sustainable, state -controlled military 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:37.940 box. And theoretically, that solves a lot of 00:30:37.940 --> 00:30:39.720 the severe problems we discussed earlier. It 00:30:39.720 --> 00:30:41.799 solves the command and control issues instantly. 00:30:42.039 --> 00:30:45.460 And it brings oversight. Ideally, yes. It brings 00:30:45.460 --> 00:30:48.940 much better oversight to actively prevent the 00:30:48.940 --> 00:30:52.720 kind of horrific human rights abuses the UN documented. 00:30:52.859 --> 00:30:56.079 Because you are far less likely to have a mysterious 00:30:56.079 --> 00:30:59.880 Mr. Oster going rogue and kidnapping a mayor 00:30:59.880 --> 00:31:02.660 when there is a rigid modern chain of command 00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:05.240 and actual military police watching the unit. 00:31:05.339 --> 00:31:08.279 Exactly. Institutionalization is the ultimate 00:31:08.279 --> 00:31:11.019 antidote to the warlord dynamic. Now, before 00:31:11.019 --> 00:31:13.059 we wrap this deep dive up, we have to talk about 00:31:13.059 --> 00:31:14.960 the absolute elephant in the room. Oh, yeah. 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:17.299 Or rather, the football team on the pitch. The 00:31:17.299 --> 00:31:20.160 wildest detail in the entire file. Because honestly, 00:31:20.380 --> 00:31:22.400 this is the detail that just sticks in my brain 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:25.299 and completely refuses to leave. It is truly 00:31:25.299 --> 00:31:27.940 unique. I genuinely can't think of another historical 00:31:27.940 --> 00:31:30.019 example quite like it anywhere in the world. 00:31:30.140 --> 00:31:32.980 We are talking about SC Dnipro 1. The football 00:31:32.980 --> 00:31:35.720 club. A professional Ukrainian Premier League 00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:38.279 football club. Playing in the absolute top tier 00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:40.019 of the national sport. They are playing matches 00:31:40.019 --> 00:31:42.480 against legendary teams like Dynamo Kyiv and 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:44.299 Shakhtar Donetsk. They were even playing in high 00:31:44.299 --> 00:31:47.079 profile European competitions. And the club is 00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:50.059 named explicitly... After the police regiment. 00:31:50.140 --> 00:31:52.619 Yes, it carries the exact same name. I just, 00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:54.900 I need the listener to really imagine this for 00:31:54.900 --> 00:31:56.339 a second. It's hard to wrap your head around. 00:31:56.680 --> 00:31:59.839 Imagine if, I don't know, the NYPD SWAT team 00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:03.700 suddenly had a fully professional baseball team 00:32:03.700 --> 00:32:06.720 in the major leagues called the New York SWATs. 00:32:06.759 --> 00:32:09.440 Wearing the police badges on their jerseys while 00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:12.680 playing the Yankees. It is absolutely baffling 00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:15.180 to an outsider. But the Wikipedia source confirms 00:32:15.180 --> 00:32:18.349 it. The club was literally named after the unit. 00:32:18.529 --> 00:32:20.829 It wasn't just some weird civic coincidence. 00:32:21.210 --> 00:32:23.769 No. And we have to remember the deep funding 00:32:23.769 --> 00:32:25.970 connection we talked about earlier. Kolomoisky, 00:32:26.089 --> 00:32:29.230 the billionaire governor. Exactly. Now, while 00:32:29.230 --> 00:32:31.509 the Wikipedia article doesn't explicitly draw 00:32:31.509 --> 00:32:34.150 a direct financial line between the football 00:32:34.150 --> 00:32:36.410 club's bank accounts and the military unit's 00:32:36.410 --> 00:32:39.200 bank accounts in that specific section. The shared 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:41.759 branding is impossible to ignore. It points to 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:44.599 this unbelievably intense integration of military 00:32:44.599 --> 00:32:47.740 power, political influence, and mass cultural 00:32:47.740 --> 00:32:50.680 identity, all centered in the city of Dnipro. 00:32:50.740 --> 00:32:54.009 The unit essentially transcended being a military 00:32:54.009 --> 00:32:56.769 formation. It became a brand. That is exactly 00:32:56.769 --> 00:32:59.150 the right word. It became a lifestyle brand. 00:32:59.289 --> 00:33:02.910 A regional symbol of defiance. And having a top 00:33:02.910 --> 00:33:05.009 -tier professional football club named after 00:33:05.009 --> 00:33:08.130 you? It completely legitimizes that symbol. It 00:33:08.130 --> 00:33:11.089 normalizes it entirely. It puts the name Dnipro 00:33:11.089 --> 00:33:14.670 One on national television screens. Every single 00:33:14.670 --> 00:33:17.049 weekend during peacetime. Kids are walking around 00:33:17.049 --> 00:33:19.750 the city wearing the jersey of a paramilitary 00:33:19.750 --> 00:33:22.390 unit. Thousands of ultra fans are chanting the 00:33:22.390 --> 00:33:25.759 name in a packed stadium. It permanently cements 00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:28.700 the unit's mythological status as the ultimate 00:33:28.700 --> 00:33:30.880 defenders of the city. It really just brings 00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:34.500 home how deeply, incredibly deeply, this war 00:33:34.500 --> 00:33:37.980 penetrated every single facet of Ukrainian society. 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:40.059 It wasn't contained. It wasn't just happening 00:33:40.059 --> 00:33:42.500 out in muddy trenches at the front. It was happening 00:33:42.500 --> 00:33:44.460 in the halls of parliament. It was happening 00:33:44.460 --> 00:33:46.859 in the opaque bank accounts of billionaires. 00:33:46.900 --> 00:33:48.599 And it was happening under the floodlights in 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:51.200 the football stadiums. It shows that total societal 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:54.400 mobilization isn't just about drafting soldiers 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:57.140 to hold the line. It is about mobilizing the 00:33:57.140 --> 00:34:00.279 underlying culture, the economy, and the very 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:02.559 identity of the people. Because when a country 00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:05.240 is fighting for its literal survival, the neat 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:08.019 lines between everything. Civilian and soldier, 00:34:08.260 --> 00:34:11.460 sport and war, legal and illegal. They all just 00:34:11.460 --> 00:34:15.019 get completely erased. Blown away entirely. What 00:34:15.019 --> 00:34:17.119 does this all mean for us today? We've looked 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:19.539 at the rapid timeline, the desperate battles, 00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:23.360 the horrific war crimes and the bizarre football 00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:25.719 connection. We've covered a lot of ground. When 00:34:25.719 --> 00:34:28.659 we step back from the details, what is the ultimate 00:34:28.659 --> 00:34:31.860 takeaway on the Dnipro -1 regiment? I think Dnipro 00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:34.559 -1 stands as the absolute perfect case study 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:37.679 for the desperate measures of 2014. A snapshot 00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:40.739 of that panic. Exactly. Ukraine faced a true 00:34:40.739 --> 00:34:43.000 existential threat. the state was fundamentally 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.639 too weak to handle it. So civil society responded 00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:48.380 in the only way it could. Right. Oligarchs essentially 00:34:48.380 --> 00:34:50.840 threw millions of dollars at the problem. Angry 00:34:50.840 --> 00:34:53.340 activists picked up assault rifles and they managed 00:34:53.340 --> 00:34:55.570 to hold the line. They genuinely did the brutal 00:34:55.570 --> 00:34:58.250 job that needed to be done when literally no 00:34:58.250 --> 00:35:00.289 one else could do it. They absolutely filled 00:35:00.289 --> 00:35:02.769 the gap. We can't deny that. But that extreme 00:35:02.769 --> 00:35:05.789 desperation came with a very, very high moral 00:35:05.789 --> 00:35:09.929 cost. Yeah. The total reliance on private, unaccountable 00:35:09.929 --> 00:35:12.769 funding, the shocking lack of basic military 00:35:12.769 --> 00:35:16.230 training, and the deep political radicalization 00:35:16.230 --> 00:35:19.230 of the personnel. It directly led to those serious 00:35:19.230 --> 00:35:21.809 ethical and legal violations we discussed. It 00:35:21.809 --> 00:35:24.380 did. They might have saved their city, but they 00:35:24.380 --> 00:35:27.139 left a very dark trail of baggage regarding human 00:35:27.139 --> 00:35:29.420 rights and political independence. It is the 00:35:29.420 --> 00:35:32.139 absolute classic double -edged sword of relying 00:35:32.139 --> 00:35:35.239 on militias. You can sharpen it incredibly fast 00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:37.300 to fight your enemy, but you can cut your own 00:35:37.300 --> 00:35:39.980 society just as easily when you swing it. And 00:35:39.980 --> 00:35:41.840 their ultimate evolution into the formal Liet 00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:44.280 Brigade shows that the state eventually realized 00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:47.300 a crucial lesson. Which is? You cannot rely on 00:35:47.300 --> 00:35:50.340 these semi -autonomous, privately funded structures 00:35:50.340 --> 00:35:53.219 forever. if you want to be a modern nation. You 00:35:53.219 --> 00:35:55.679 have to eventually rein them in and institutionalize 00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:58.079 them. It's a necessary maturing process for the 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:00.000 state. You have to move from the chaotic Wild 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:03.699 West back to a regulated professional army. Exactly. 00:36:03.960 --> 00:36:06.159 Well, here is a final thought for you listening 00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:08.530 to Ponder. Let's hear it. When the definitive 00:36:08.530 --> 00:36:10.769 history books are finally written about this 00:36:10.769 --> 00:36:14.170 entire conflict decades from now, how do we as 00:36:14.170 --> 00:36:17.969 a society reconcile the undeniable tactical necessity 00:36:17.969 --> 00:36:21.329 of units like Dnipro -1 with the heavily documented 00:36:21.329 --> 00:36:24.110 accounts of their horrific conduct off the battlefield? 00:36:24.409 --> 00:36:26.690 It's a heavy question. Can you honestly separate 00:36:26.690 --> 00:36:29.230 the heroic defender bleeding in the rubble of 00:36:29.230 --> 00:36:32.070 Mariupol from the alleged abuser suffocating 00:36:32.070 --> 00:36:36.099 a man in a basement in Avdiivka? Or in a chaotic, 00:36:36.179 --> 00:36:38.539 desperate war like this, are they inevitably 00:36:38.539 --> 00:36:41.500 just two sides of the exact same coin? That is 00:36:41.500 --> 00:36:43.820 the defining question of asymmetrical warfare. 00:36:44.079 --> 00:36:46.300 And I genuinely don't think there's an easy, 00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:48.800 clean answer to it. Definitely not. But it is 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:50.400 absolutely something you need to think about 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:53.039 as we watch incredibly violent conflict shape 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:55.599 and break state institutions in real time all 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:57.480 over the world. Thank you for diving deep with 00:36:57.480 --> 00:36:59.659 us today. Thank you. It was a fascinating discussion. 00:36:59.940 --> 00:37:01.639 We will see you all next time. Stay curious.