Ukraine’s ex-PM says Kiev regime relies on “voluntary battalions”

Current Ukrainian authorities are heavily relying on “voluntary battalions” that “are ready to shoot at anybody,” Ukraine’s former prime minister Mykola Azarov told a press conference in Moscow on Monday.

“What do the current [Ukrainian] authorities rely on? On the army? Not quite, I know them all really well. Now they stand at attention… But as soon as this regime falters, they will destroy this regime themselves. It [the regime] relies only on voluntary battalions,” Azarov said.

He also noted that existence of voluntary battalions is impermissible in a European country and called for soonest disarmament of those battalions. “If you want to carry arms – go to army, to police, to SBU [Security Service],” Azarov stressed.

The former prime minister also expressed confidence that all participants of voluntary battalions who committed crimes should be “severely punished.”.