them if they join us in our struggle, and to offer safety to their families.” On 28 February Russia started to issue pro-Russian Berkut members Russian passports in the city of Simferopol. By 21 March 2014, the date the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol were granted accession as federal subjects of Russia as a result of the referendum in Crimea, the Berkut units based in the territory were still active despite the agency being dissolved. Three days later, Russia announced that the Berkut units in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol would preserve their name and would be incorporated into the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. In June 2014, an armed pro-Russian separatist group fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk in the War in Donbass called the Donbass Veterans' Union claimed to be composed of "more than 1000" former Berkut officers and other former servicemen and police officers. On 5 April 2016, Berkut was transferred from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs to the newly-created National Guard of Russia. Organization The Crimean Berkut unit has 400 members with subunits in Kerch and Yalta. Belarus At the request of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 2014 after the publication on the website of the newspaper Salidarnasts about the fact that former employees of the Ukrainian "Berkut" are employed in the Belarusian OMON, the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Konstantin Shalkevich responded negatively, since "the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not comment on low-quality essays on a free topic posted on the Internet." Nevertheless, in 2020, the ex-employees of the disbanded "Berkut" were identified in the ranks of OMON. In 2021 Novy Chas identified even more such personalities. Notes A.The status of Crimea and Sevastopol is currently part of a much greater dispute between Ukraine and Russia; the current Ukrainian government considers the Crimean region an autonomous republic of Ukraine and Sevastopol one of Ukraine's cities with special status, and views the Russian presence following the 2014 annexation as illegitimate, while Russia considers Crimea a federal subject of Russia and Sevastopol one of its federal cities. Both remain under complete Russian control. References See also Internal Troops of Ukraine Internal Troops of Russia National Guard of Russia External links Kyiv’s riot police brutal, ‘begrudging’ by Kyiv Post, Dec. 5, 2013 Truth about special unit "Berkut". TSN. 1+1. Berkut and naked hostage Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Defunct law enforcement