With rising tensions, Ukrainians are thinking about buying weapons

Get a medium or large pizza if you can prove you bought a gun or got a gun license in January.

The three-day offer in Kiev was made by the pizzeria chain Pizza Veterano – a name that reflects the fact that the owner of this pizzeria chain, Leonid Ostaltsev, is a veteran of the nearly eight-year war against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, known and Donbas.

The offer, according to Ostaltsev, was made in gratitude to Ukrainians who bought or obtained weapons permits at a time of rising tensions as Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, raising concerns that Moscow may be prepared to launch a major offensive.

This offer also played a role in the growing debate over gun ownership – driven by civilian training programs, the creation of regional defense units, which would be required to defend the country in the event of an attack. of large-scale and other preparations that are taking place as Russian military mobilization continues.

“I want to thank all the citizens who, feeling the danger of Russia’s unpredictable movements, make the right decisions and buy weapons or get weapons permits,” Oslaltsev wrote on Facebook.

Ostaltsev’s post ended with a warning: “And do not forget the most important thing! “Without proper training, weapons are just metal and plastic – so go and train.”

War broke out suddenly in Ukraine in April 2014 after mass protests toppled a Russia-friendly president, and Moscow responded by annexing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and fueling separatism along the east and south. The conflict in the Donbas has left more than 13,200 people dead, forced more than a million others to flee, and affected Ukraine and its inhabitants in many ways.

Now, the possibility of a wider invasion has brought the issue of gun ownership back into the spotlight.

On January 29, the Ukrainian government allowed new members of the Territorial Defense Units to use hunting weapons. Ukraine has recently established 25 such units, one for almost every province.

Yaroslav Yemelyanenko, head of the Chernobyl Association of Tour Operators, is a passionate gun owner: He owns five firearms and defends the view that “we can not rely on the state to protect us.”

A nationwide poll conducted in January by the Kiev-based Razumkov Center found that 56 percent of Ukrainians believed that neither Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy nor other authorities were “making sufficient efforts to prevent an invasion of the wide ”or“ were organizing the defense of the country ”if any offensive occurs.

The self-defense instructor, Oleksiy Martynenko, is another advocate of gun ownership, in part because “law enforcement can not do enough to protect everyone,” he said.

In his profession, he sees an increase in “civilians considering the possibility of buying weapons as a way to protect their state,” Martynenko said.

Rising concerns about the possibility of a new Russian invasion, he said, have made it clear that “most people do not know how to use a weapon.”

Maratynenko quoted Jeff Cooper, the late American Marine and small arms expert, as saying that “having a gun does not make you a gunman, just as having a piano does not make you a musician.”

For some in Ukraine, the risks of gun ownership outweigh the potential benefits, at least for those who are not trained to use guns properly.

Tetyana, a tactical medicine and first aid instructor, last year sold her hunting rifle after being convinced it would not be very effective in combat.

Most shotguns are “short-range” and if a person has no experience using them at close range or long range and has never fired at a person before, then the weapon is more likely to land. “its user in a coffin,” she said.

Tetyana told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Donbas.Realities that she is not against civilians having weapons, but that weapons should be in the hands of those who know how to use them.

According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in circulation are almost 1.5 million firearms in the state with 44 million inhabitants. About 70,000 guns are sold each year, the New Voice of Ukraine Gun Owners Association said earlier this month. According to this association, to obtain a permit to possess a weapon, one has to wait an average of one month.

Vyacheslav Zhuravlyov, a former lieutenant colonel in the counter-terrorism unit at the State Security Agency, is another advocate of gun possession. He said there should be professionals who would properly train people who buy weapons “and everything else would be fine”.

In the event of a major Russian offensive, the prospects would be bleak.

And Oleksiy Byk, a volunteer in the Donbas war zone, said illegal weapons are also a serious problem. But he believes that compared to 2014, Ukraine is now much more prepared in case there will be an escalation of Russia’s aggression.

“We have learned from our mistakes. “Veterans have legal weapons and are undergoing training,” he said. “We will not leave, we have nowhere to leave. This is our land and we will protect it “./ REL

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