In the morning of the 9th of May the newly appointed head of the police department in Mariupol, Valery Androschuk has called for a gathering of local police personnel. He was accompanied by the head of the special battalion “Denpr” (a newly formed death squad of neo-nazi). During the meeting the police chief read to the policemen the order to disperse the rally on Victory day over fascism and arrest ‘the most active citizens’. This victory day rally is held every year on the 9th of May to remember the victory over Hitler fascism in 1945.
The policemen refused to fulfill the order of the newly appointed chief. Then the head of department Andruschuk shot one of them with a pistol on a rank-and-file policeman. His colleagues immidiately shot back – the head of the police department was wounded and the head of the death squad ‘Dnepr’ was killed on the spot. The personnel of police refuse to obey any orders and declared that they would not wage a war against their own people. Androschuk barricaded himself in one of the offices of the building and called the National Guard to help him in the police department. Immediately APCs, ‘National guard’ and Right Sector militants were sent to suppress the defection of the police to the people of the city. Those promptly arrived and started an attack. At least 14 APCs and tanks were deployed to Mariupol by the Ukrainian government. The citizens of the city immediately took to the streets and tried to stop the tanks with their bare hands. In the end they were not successful. And so the tanks started the onslaught onto the city.