Ukrainian drafts kids to military camp
(Ukraine) More than 100 Ukrainian schoolchildren will have unusual
tales to tell their mates when classes resume, after spending part of their
summer vacations undergoing training by the National Guard.
The training at a National Guard camp about 75 kilometers
(45 miles) from Kiev taught children aged 11-15 rudimentary military skills and
gave them a taste of army life in courses over three days, reports AP.
At night the
children were quartered in army tents; by day they got instruction in marksmanship,
hand-to-hand fighting, weapons maintenance, first aid, map reading and
orienteering.
For 11-year-old Oleksander Olinichenko, whose mother and
father are both in the Ukrainian army, the camp was a chance to pursue his
interest in all things military, as well as show his patriotism.
Some children are from military families in Kiev, others are
refugees who relocated to the Ukrainian capital, having left their homes in
eastern Ukraine when fighting broke out in 2014. Some of the children chosen to
attend the camp come from low-income families, according to the National Guard
press office.
National Guardsman Oleksander Honcharenko gave the children
instruction in hand-to-hand fighting and karate. He told The Associated Press
he and all the other instructors at the camp had served in the Ukrainian army
during the conflict in East Ukraine.
"I think every person has to be able to defend himself
and his relatives, his nearest and dearest, his family and property. The most
important thing is to be able to react quickly in an extreme situation and to
make the right decision. The kind of the hand-to-hand fighting that we teach
helps them develop such abilities," said Honcharenko, who is vice
president of the Ukrainian Karate Association.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko recently vowed to
increase troop numbers to fend off attacks by Russia-backed separatist rebels
and warned his countrymen that there is still the threat of a "large-scale
invasion." He claimed that Russia had massed about 50,000 troops on the
border with Ukraine, still had 9,000 soldiers in eastern Ukraine and had supplied
the rebels with about 500 tanks and 400 pieces of artillery.
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