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Panorama: Behind the Balaclavas

22/05/2014 GMT

Behind the Balaclavas

BBC World News - Panorama, Behind the Balaclavas

Paul Kenyon follows men who have become some of the most powerful in the Ukraine conflict.

Paul Kenyon follows the men who have become some of the most powerful in the Ukraine conflict, including a former history teacher and a former businessman who now leads an army.

As Ukraine moves closer to civil war, reporter Paul Kenyon spends weeks with balaclava-wearing separatists, as they seize towns and fight for a breakaway republic. 

He follows men who've become some of the most powerful in the conflict. There's Miroslav - the former history teacher with a newborn baby - who joins protesters storming a local government building and is now part of the three man governing body of the People's Republic of Donetsk and Alexei, a former small businessman who now finds himself leading a 200 strong army.   

The programme also questions the new Mayor of Slaviansk - who rose to power during the rebellion after taking his predecessor prisoner, and who now boasts he's holding forty hostages in the town hall's cellars.

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