Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has denied any conflict between the Armed Forces and Right Sector, a Ukrainian volunteer corps banned in Russia.
“There is no misunderstanding among the military [the Armed Forces and Right Sector]. They communicate with one another normally so I don’t see any problem,” Poltorak told reporters at the Great Patriotic War Museum in Kyiv.
Earlier the deputy chief of the Armed Forces General Staff and Verkhovna Rada member and Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh visited the Armed Forces and Right Sector units and inspected the camps where the neighboring units are based, the minister said.
Right Sector is planning to become part of the Armed Forces, talks are currently underway over which unit they will join, the minister said.
“They are keen, and so are we. We need experienced people, and they have the experience in conducting hostilities,” Poltorak added.
Earlier Yarosh said that the only way to resolve the situation around the volunteer battalions is for the Verkhovna Rada to pass relevant legislation.
“The only acceptable option for us (…) is the passage by the Verkhovna Rada of a law regarding the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps (of which there have already been agreements, by the way),” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Right Sector will wage the fight for restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity “until its victorious completion,” Yarosh said.
“The Volunteer Ukrainian Corps will not give up arms,” he said.
It was reported that on April 28 paratroopers from the 25th and 95th brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces blocked the Right Sector’s base and tried to disarm its fighters, Yarosh said.
The following day Right Sector activists staged a protest outside the Ukrainian presidential administration in central Kyiv.
The issue of Right Sector’s joining the Armed Forces voluntarily as a separate unit has been resolved, the presidential administration said.
