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SaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for October 24, 2023 | SaltWireKYIV REGION, Ukraine - At a simple shooting range outside Kyiv, a group of 20 Russian citizens clad in Ukrainian uniforms practiced firing assault rifles and machine guns.Their commander, a Ukrainian who introduced himself by the callsign Batya, said some of the recruits to Ukraine's newly-formed Siberian Battalion, the yellow and blue flag on their sleeves, were now ready for battle.
"Starting from Tsarist Russia, when they colonized us, they destroyed our culture, our language and traditions. It was Russification, pure and simple," Gennadiy, a 29-year-old with the callsign Buryat, which refers to his homeland of Buryatia on the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia, told Reuters. Civil society group Free Buryatia Foundation has said the drive to mobilise a disproportionate number of Buryats was a political choice, as the Kremlin saw Buryatia as posing less of a risk in terms of anti-government protests.