Serbian War Veterans Operating in Crimea: Russian Roulette in Ukraine

[Music] we've come to a place that's very holy for Russians in Crimea it's where the first leader of Russia Prince Vladimir accepted Christianity but the reason we're here has nothing to do with Russians we're here to meet a group of Serbian chetniks who come here from Serbia to support the cacs in defending Crimea from the west and these guys are all military veterans of the Yugoslav wars and they look pretty serious [Music] Al is m so uh our school it's not extremist school or something bad just sign of uh sacrifice for some way [Music] we're at the main uh checkpoint between sasto and sople the two biggest cities in Crimea and we've come here to meet the Serbian volunteers because this is where they're going to be doing whatever it is they came here to do and it turns out the guy standing next to the guy who I interviewed was a member of something called the Serbian Liberation Army which was a paramilitary organization that wasn't even recognized by the Serbian government and he was involved in fighting that triggered the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia in the late 90s but the other thing that he's known for is having been accused of attempting to kill the president of Serbia Slobodan mosovich but those charges were later dropped I was I read on the internet about you guys after we talked okay and um were you were you part of the yugosl the Serbian Liberation Army so I saw it on the internet not true it's not true what Liberation I don't know it's 16 years I've been Republic might be in Co two years but but never in something like the uh Serbia Liberation Army or something like that that's not exist because your friend it said that he was accused of uh attempting to assassinate Slobodan mosovich the couple mens uh made something like that and when he be on day just uh Sayo and put his picture on newspapers they say that they want to kill Mich that they want to kill General hovic and he don't know nothing about that when he come from Kia in Serbia they just arrest him why understand yeah yeah yeah all right very interesting well uh how long are you staying here for we on this place in Crimea to referendum and more if is necessary understood if be many days we will make the next group to come uhhuh all right well good luck thank you bye it's the weirdest thing in the world bunch of Serbian army veterans standing on a checkpoint in the middle of Crimea checking cars between sople and sople couldn't make it [Music] up say again okay thanks bye so it looks like something's up at an aviation radio Base outside of seole so we might just head [Music] back we're just rushing over to a Ukrainian military base because we've heard that a group of kaks with Russian soldiers are attacking it but we've also heard from some colleagues that it might be a trick because a Ukrainian journalist went over there and was beaten up really bad and now he's on the way to the hospital and we're heading over there and we're not sure if we should go but I think we're going to try to get as close as we can uh at a safe distance and uh see what's happening and see if we should investigate further [Music] for for for the officers here are saying this is part of the bigger strategy that the Russians have of trying to provoke the ukrainians into a fight they come here they offer them to give themselves up uh the ukrainians say no they climb over the walls they make everybody really nervous and then eventually they leave and they've been doing this all around Crimea and they're waiting for somebody to break there goes a column of armored personnel carriers and a troop truck and they're heading to the capital of Crimea or at least in the direction of the capital of Crimea sopel we're going to keep following it we're following a column of uh Russian armored personnel carriers just to find out where they're going but in the meantime I just got a call and this is secondhand information but apparently the camera crew which got beat up outside of the base um some of them may have been kidnapped uh because apparent somebody was calling them and as they were calling the car was getting pulled over and they were being told to get out and now nobody can reach them and I have the guys's number and I tried to call his phone uh and uh the phone Switched [Music] Off

Channel: VICE News

Views: 2,231,783

Keywords: Serbian War Veterans Operating in Crimea, russian roulette vice, VICE News, news, VICE, VICE Magazine, documentary, interviews, world news, breaking news, happening now, Ukraine (Country), Russia (Country), Crimean peninsula, Crimean War (Event), troops, war, attack, invasion, invade, Moscow, Soviet Union (Country), journalism, vice.com, vice videos, vicevideos, police, crisis, interview, vice news, culture, wild, world, exclusive, independent, underground, simon ostrovsky russian roulette

Id: pFlLN9E2kcY

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 09 2014