Ukrainian police Flecktarn

I'm wondering what people can tell me about these uniforms I have. The uniform itself is intended for police special action units. You can clearly see that in the letters stenciled on the front and back (a typical Ukrainian/Soviet practice). However, both uniforms were used by non-Police units.

The first is a winter uniform. It is made out of a highly synthetic (100%, probably) cloth which is smooth and slippery. It is badged for a unit of foreign volunteers fighting in Ukraine. I do not recognize the red backed chest badge.

The second uniform is a rugged summer ripstop uniform badged for Ukraine National Guard, but I do not recognize the unit badge. Currently there are National Guard troops in this uniform dealing with economic blockades at the frontline with the DPR/LPR.

Both uniforms were made in 2015.







Steve

The nevery ending story with Ukranian camos goes on.... Interesting about the ,,Militsiya,, signs, since this unit was replaced by the National Police in 2015. No idea if that stuff is
in widespread use or just some of the probably 1000 tested, private or unit-purchased pieces.
The cut is quite different than the uniforms of the regular army. Also I couldn't tell which piece is actually
,,real,, or just put together to make some extra profit on ebay. The same story with the huge variety of knock-off commercial stuff using
issued camo patterns. Besides that, a nice find IMHO.

Thanks for the input. It is a mystery

I bought both off the same guy in Germany and he's had quite a lot of interesting Ukrainian stuff over the past year or so. IIRC I got my gray/blue digital National Guard winter uniform from him as well. So I'm sure that whatever these things are, they came from active use in Ukraine.

Both uniforms have labels that are, mostly, readable. Different manufacturers. They have pockets and features consistent with modern Ukrainian uniforms, though as you point out they aren't exactly the same.

The summer Flecktarn uniform is actually nearly identical to the olive green (solid color) National Guard uniform issued around the same time. The only differences I can see is that the National Guard jacket has two exposed buttons; one at the neck and one at the bottom of the zipper. Also, I don't think the National Guard has a vented "cape" shoulder like the Flecktarn one.

The winter Flecktarn set shares some features of the National Guard digital winter jacket, but there are many differences.

It would probably be helpful to get the unit badge on the summer uniform and the chest badge on the winter uniform identified. That could lead us in the right direction. Or at least not head us in the wrong one

Steve

very nice and interesting uniforms indeed and as Alex said, another mistery ... the uniform itself came into trial use in 2015, somewhat around spring time and was started to be rolled out to all special police forces in mid/end 2015 - early 2016 ... It was intended for special police units (like russ. OMON etc.), hence the different cut compared to army uniforms. the idea furthermore was to have a clear distinction between military unit cuts and sheer police force uniforms. So seeing the 'Militsiya' labels could mean that it was in use, for testing, perhaps with some Police units before renaming 'Militsiya' to National Police on November 7th 2015. It was surely only done by a few units.
Coming to the patches, when the war dragged on in eastern ukraine (donbass) some right wing units like 'UKROP' (ukr: УКРОП) received police uniforms or have helped themselves from warehouses of Interior troops and labelled them with all sorts of more or less (from an official point of view) incorrect patches, such as National Guards patches. This could explain the rather 'wild' patching of your sets. (the aforementionend btw is input from Ukrainian sources, who to some extend have been to the Donbass region recently) ... Now my guess is, that your uniforms have actually seen action in Eastern Ukraine and where used by UKROP units. The maroon breast patch on the jacket in your upper picture reads: 'Україна - Внутрішні війська' eng: 'Ukraine - Internal Troops' ... the left arm patch on the same jacket is the aforementioned 'UKROP' (ukr: УКРОП) patch, which is strange as UKROP is no part of Internal troops, but a nationalist right wing political party. the patch on the right sleeve on your second jacket reads: 'недершавна слушба безпеки' meaning 'public services security' ... so do we know more now???? ... well it is another one of those Ukrainian mysteries ...

Nice one! These appear to be quite rare, so congratulations getting one that is unissued (or close to it).

Steve

dynamo.alex wrote:Now my guess is, that your uniforms have actually seen action in Eastern Ukraine and where used by UKROP units. The maroon breast patch on the jacket in your upper picture reads: 'Україна - Внутрішні війська' eng: 'Ukraine - Internal Troops' ... the left arm patch on the same jacket is the aforementioned 'UKROP' (ukr: УКРОП) patch, which is strange as UKROP is no part of Internal troops, but a nationalist right wing political party. the patch on the right sleeve on your second jacket reads: 'недершавна слушба безпеки' meaning 'public services security' ... so do we know more now????   ... well it is another one of those Ukrainian mysteries ...

In Ukraine everybody knows that UKROP (УКРОП) (this is the abbreviation of the words «УКРаїнське Об'єднання Патріотів», i.e. UKRainian Union of Patriots, is a private party and private army of oligarche Igor Kolomoysky, who was defeated by another oligarche - active president Poroshenko, lost his bank "PRIVAT" and the position of the head of Dnipro region (oblast).

Kolomoysky is also a citizen of Israel and Switzerland, where he lives with his family (in Geneva region), craving for revenge.

Now the ATO (anti-terrorist operation) format was changed for SSO (special forces operations) and nobody but Armed Forces have the right to take part in the actions on the East of Ukraine.

vonstuck wrote:

As far as I can see from the photos above, "ОСКАР-Т" is based in Kyiv, the telephone code (044) belong to the capital.

Never heard about this company, it should be some small factory.

dynamo.alex wrote: the patch on the right sleeve on your second jacket reads: 'недершавна слушба безпеки' meaning 'public services security' ....

dynamo.alex, let me make come small correction of the spelling "Ш"-> "Ж":

not "недерШавна слуШба безпеки", but "недерЖавна слуЖба безпеки".

That means "Private (Not State) Security Service", i.e. usual security company, watchmen.. ;-)

I can also add some info from a Ukrainian web-site: http://lostarmour.info/articles/rascvetki-kamuflyazha-vsu-i-ukrainskih-sil-v-voyne-na-donbasse/

"Flecktarn/Флектарн/Флек

Типичная картина для 2014-ого года — неуставной немецкий камуфляж, поверх которого бронежилет и каска в уставном «дубке»

На 2018-ый год данная расцветка продолжает оставаться основным камуфляжем немецкой армии. Немецкая форма давно стала популярна по всему бывшему Советскому Союзу благодаря практике Бундесвера централизовано продавать поношенную фору буквально за копейки — найти немецкий китель, штаны или парку в торгующих снаряжением и формой магазинах можно от Минска до Владивостока за одинаково небольшие деньги. На Украине данная форма еще до Майдана была популярна среди организаций украинских националистов, например «Патриот Украины». Эти же люди потом во многом составили костяк некоторых добровольческих батальонов.

Некоторые были экипированы до начала противостояния

В рядах ополченцев данная расцветка тоже не самая редкая, ровно по тем же причинам, однако в абсолютных числах явно уступает проукраинской стороне.

Кроме оригинального немецкого окраса обе стороны применяют и «поделки на тему» от различных фирм производителей. Из наиболее массовых можно отметить форму, которую централизованно закупало МВД Украины — паттерн отличается от немецкого, хотя и очень похож."

The translation is approximately as follows:

"Flecktarn / Fleck

A typical picture for the year 2014 is a soldier wearing non-statutory (for Ukraine) German camouflage combined with the statutory Ukrainian "oak" camouflage bulletproof vest and helmet.

For 2018, Flecktarn continues to be the main camouflage of the German army. The German uniform has long been popular throughout the former Soviet Union thanks to the Bundeswehr's practice to centrally sell shabby odds literally for pennies - to find a German tunic, trousers or a parka in merchandising outfitters and uniforms from Minsk to Vladivostok for equally small money. In pre-Maidan Ukraine this uniform was popular among organizations of Ukrainian nationalists, for example "Patriots of Ukraine". These same people then largely formed the backbone of some volunteer battalions.

Some of these units were equipped in Flecktarn before the confrontation began.

Among the pro-Russian insurgents the German camouflage is also not very rare, exactly for the same reasons, but in absolute numbers it is clearly inferior to the pro-Ukrainian side.

In addition to the original German color, both sides use "hand-made articles" (copies of Flecktarn) from various manufacturers. Of the most massive, you can note the form that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine bought centrally - the pattern differs from German, although very similar.

I can also add, that according to my information, pro-Russian troops usually deleted the German flags from the sleeves of Flecktarn jackets, while pro-Ukrainian troops used to leave the German flags, but also often used to change them for Ukrainian flags.