Convicts-turned-cops on forefront of Ukraine’s battle against Russia

“All of us are afraid. We all die. We all feel pain,” Onishchenko, whose nom-de-guerre is Friman, tells them. “But some people fight against this, and others surrender. I am fighting and I’m here, all cowards are over there. They can always find excuses.”

Onishchenko is the head of Ukraine’s Tornado volunteer battalion of about 100 people, formerly known as Shakhtarsk. Most of its fighters are former convicts from Donbas who are now formally police officers reporting to the Interior Ministry. For reasons nobody can properly explain, the battalion’s logo features a yin and yang symbol of Taoism.

The battalion’s former convicts turn out to be more patriotic than local police officers, many of whom have joined the separatist cause.