Oleksandr Danylyuk, the leader of the militant Spilna Sprava group who fled to London after an arrest warrant was issued against him, said today that the EuroMaidan "revolution" is entering a decisive phase.
Danylyuk says that President Viktor Yanukovych's options are dwindling to two choices: cracking down in an attempt to end the protests that started on Nov. 21, or compromising with a genuine power-sharing agreement.
Danylyuk made the comments in an exchange of Facebook messages, objecting to the Kyiv Post’s description of the Spilna Sprava group as “radical,” but accepting the term “militant.”
He is wanted on suspicion of “organizing riots that caused the death of people or serious harm to them,” reads the Interior Ministry’s database of wanted people. The offense carries up to 15 years behind bars.
Danylyuk denies the charges. “We are peaceful people,” Danylyuk said. “Our strategy is nonviolent.”
His group also wants to take part in international negotiations to resolve Ukraine’s political crisis. He hopes conditions are right for him to return next month to Ukraine.
Danylyuk said that, as the husband of a United Kingdom citizen, he is in England legally.
He doesn’t expect his exile to hurt Spilna Sprava’s organization in Ukraine; to the contrary, he may be able to attract more than 2,000 recruits to the group, which “will become more active,” he said, without specifying how.
Danylyuk alerted the public through his Facebook page over the weekend that he had left Ukraine.
The 32-year-old EuroMaidan activist and Kyiv-educated lawyer wrote that when he learned of his pending “arrest and further incarceration or torture… I changed clothes, and without notifying my security detail, went into hiding and left Khreshchatyk Street (main thoroughfare in Kyiv). After a few days of hiding, I crossed the border at night by foot. Today I finally made it to London. I’ll have to coordinate (the group’s efforts) in exile.”
Danylyuk’s organization came under severe criticism from authorities and the political opposition after it occupied three national government buildings last week deemed strategically important: Agricultural, Energy and Justice ministries.
The group eventually vacated the buildings but not before causing a stir. Justice Minister Olena Lukash had threatened to demand that the National Security Council impose a state of emergency in the country. Detractors of Spilna Sprava branded the group as “provocateurs.”
Police issued a warrant for his arrest still on Jan. 24, the day they say he went missing. However, Danylyuk was active on Facebook and accessible by mobile phone unitl Jan. 28.
His wife and son flew to London on Jan. 27.
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected] and Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
