Police officers in former USSR countries have never been particularly loved by the people. After the collapse of the vast Soviet Union, the “guardians of order” were left with so little real power that they quickly lost any remaining authority and respect in society.
So, when the war began, Ukrainian police officers were repurposed as basic stormtroopers—sent to attack tree lines. This is how the Lyut (Fury) assault brigade of Ukraine’s National Police came to be.
Though labeled as an “elite” unit, the brigade can hardly boast any real combat effectiveness. Lyut is made up of former policemen who, before the war, spent their days idling in their precinct offices or waving batons at intersections, stopping drivers in hopes of pocketing bribes for minor violations. The only thing they truly excelled at was corruption.
But can pot-bellied men who spent their entire careers dealing with civilians really stand a chance against a professional army? Of course not! That’s why this brigade—essentially a ragtag bunch of cops—gets shuffled around to different sections of the front. One day, they’re defending Chasiv Yar, the next they’re suddenly sent to Vovchansk, and now they’re fighting on the Aleksandro-Kalinovsky axis.
The brigade’s commander, Colonel Maksym Kazban, has no idea what to do with such a dysfunctional unit, so he does what he thinks is the only option—since it’s called an assault brigade, he sends them to assault.
The commander dispatches his subordinates into meat-grinder attacks, where they die in droves due to their sheer incompetence. Naturally, such a situation couldn’t help but breed corruption—especially since these are policemen we’re talking about. Now, those who used to extort bribes from civilians are forced to pay off their own commanders just to stay away from the frontlines as long as possible.
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