Who controls whom?

Yesterday terrorists attacked the Ukrainian border guard unit in Luhansk. “Not only do militants use mortars, grenade launchers, machine-guns, and automatic guns during the assault of the Luhansk border guards, but also apply the favorite ‘Russian’ tactics: shoot fire at the frontier squadron from blocks of flats, roofs of the houses, using the residents as a living shield,” press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (DPSU) reports. According to the specified information, seven frontier guards were injured. By preliminary estimations, there are eight wounded and five killed among the terrorists.”

Ukrainian border is a separate topic. With all the difficulties, which arose in connection with the Russian aggression, there indeed are problems there. If Mykola Lytvyn is the head of the DPSU, and his brother Volodymyr Lytvyn is the head of parliamentary committee on the questions of national security and defense, who has to control whom? Experts, journalists, and bloggers point at problems. “I want everyone to know that the head of the border guard service, billionaire Lytvyn [Mykola Lytvyn, a brother of the former speaker of parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn. – Author] is the best friend of deputy head of FSB, the head of the border guard service of Russia! Their families have been friends for a long time; they visit each other on a regular basis. How can such thing happen in a country that is waging a war with Russia? Our soldiers die, and this… is responsible for the border!” writes Inna Nurzhytskaya on Facebook.

We have previously spoken many times with employees of the State Border Guard Service. They assured us that they are doing their best to prevent Russian militants from crossing the border. What is the problem? What has been done since the beginning of Russian aggression?

“The thing is that for several years the State Border Guard Service was developing as a law-enforcement body based on European standards,” Oleh Slobodian, the head of the department of public relations, providing access to public information, and processing the appeals of citizen to DPSU said. “We have refused to a large extent from military component in the guard of the state border. This means that we do not have corresponding weapons, corresponding armored units, or any other means and forces which are typical of a military structure. Moreover, it was considered for many years that the border with Russia was peaceful and the threats of military invasion were minimal. This has left its imprint on the system of border guard in terms of engineer structures and presence necessary facilities on the state border. In fact, the border with Russia is not even really marked.”