The Crimean Ultras

March, 10, 2014

Mariya Dragina, The Ukrayinska Pravda, Life; Photos by Serhiy Morgunov

I got acquainted with the Crimean Ultras while I was for 3 days in Simferopol during the meeting dedicated to the Taras Shevchenko’s 200 hundred anniversary. It is very uncommon to meet pro-Ukrainian Crimean inhabitants. When I saw guys in typical outfits near the Shevchenko monument, I headed to them. I was greeted right away with a question:

– Where are you from? Don’t photograph our faces! – I regret about that because the faces of these guys are handsome and light. – We are not only Ultras, we are the spontaneous autonomous defense of Crimea.

Advertisement

Football ultras unite to defend civilian population

While the world was dazzled by flaring images of Ukraine’s central square, something far more unusual has been happening in the shadows (text and references prepared for interested international media).

A popular saying among protesters on Ukraine’s flaring main square these days is that to many people it actually feels the least dangerous place compared to other streets in the country. While grenades distract cameras, most attacks on the civilian population last week in fact took place on the quite streets of Kiev and in smaller demonstrations in other cities. The perpetrators, freshly labelled as “Titushkas”, are a new and bizarre type: organised groups of muscley young men, looking rather desperate and lumpenised, who admit to have been hired for about 20 Euro a day and equipped to smash cars, windows and people involved in the protests. The fact that police routinely observes “Titushka” attacks without intervening makes most people think that authorities are behind the organisation of these gangs. [Video attached: Police officer covers up one of the titushka helping him to hide his knife].

Ultras of Ukraine unite against “Titushkas”

Titushka” thugs in Kharkiv have problems. They are being handled by “ultras” and patriots. “Titushka” recruiters from Kharkiv’s fighting club “Oplot” failed to send to Kyiv the “declared” 400 militants on Monday, December 20th.