Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is named in the book’s account of Berkut, a special police agency whose institutional allegiance changed during the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Its role is presented through that shift: Berkut had been partly subordinate to Ukraine’s primary police force, but units stationed on the peninsula defected to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and continued under the same name as the gendarmerie of Russian Crimea.

Institutional connection

The book’s explanatory note describes Berkut as formed in 1992 and partly subordinate to the primary Ukrainian police force within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The Ministry is therefore presented as part of the agency’s pre-defection institutional framework, rather than as an organization acting directly in the novel’s principal scenes.

Berkut’s change of allegiance

During the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Berkut units stationed on the peninsula defected to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. They retained the name Berkut, while taking on a new role as the gendarmerie of Russian Crimea. The continuity of the name alongside the change of affiliation and function makes the institutional rupture especially clear: the force remained recognizable while the authority it served changed.

The Ministry in the novel’s political setting

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is mentioned in a note explaining this history, while the main narrative shows people navigating checkpoints and uncertain jurisdiction. The novel’s reference to Berkut supplies context for that divided landscape: policing is not represented as a stable, uniform system, but as an authority reshaped by the peninsula’s political transformation.