Special
forces were deployed along with police negotiators on Aug. 3 when a rally in
Kharkiv erupted into violent clashes, with pro-Ukrainian activists driving supporters
of the Opposition Bloc into a building in a scene frighteningly reminiscent of
the May 2 Odesa tragedy.
The events started out peacefully on July 30, with local residents staging a protest in support of the Opposition Bloc registering for local elections. Another rally was held by pro-Ukrainian activists to protest the party’s registration, according to international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which observed the two separate
rallies.
The Opposition Bloc brings together
political parties that did not support the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution and have
a decidedly pro-Russian slant.
Tensions hit a fever pitch at the same rally held on Aug. 3, when members of the ultranationalist group Right Sector and other pro-Ukrainian activists clashed with supporters of the Opposition Bloc.
After the two rallies had wrapped up and Opposition Bloc lawmaker Mikhail
Dobkin went back to his office, unknown masked men began throwing stones
and smashing up Dobkin’s vehicle, a blue minibus.
A video of
the incident shows dozens of masked men destroying the vehicle while being
taunted by a separate group of men across the street, apparently supporters of
the Opposition Bloc. After a brief period of calm, shots were fired as masked
men threw stones the building where the rival group was located.
Police were
quickly forced to cordon off the entire area. Dobkin and his aides were driven
back into the building, where they barricaded themselves until police
negotiators arrived to talk them out. By mid-afternoon, police vans had arrived
to take away those detained for the violence, though it was not immediately
clear how many people had been taken into custody.
While
various media reports placed the blame for the violence on Right Sector, the
group’s spokesman, Artyom Skoropadsky, said members of the group had only been
present at the rally to “support the locals who were against the Opposition
Bloc.”
“Then clashes
broke out when provocateurs started firing at random. So, of course, Right
Sector responded, because how can they not respond when they’re being shot at?”
he said.
“These are
the people responsible for killing people on Maidan,” Skoropadsky said of the
Opposition Bloc, explaining why the group was against the party registering for
local elections in Kharkiv.
Dobkin, in
comments to Ukrinform, denied that his supporters had initiated the clashes,
saying pro-Ukrainian activists had blocked the road to the local justice
ministry building in the morning, preventing him from being able to submit the
necessary documents for local elections.
In a
separate statement issued after the incident, Dobkin described the events as a
“violation of all democratic values, rights and freedom,” and said he believed
local authorities had set the whole thing up to prevent him from being able to
register for elections.
Kharkiv has
been the scene of numerous violent protests pitting pro-Russians against
pro-Ukrainians throughout the conflict in Ukraine, with one such rally
culminating in a shootout in March 2014. According to the Security Service of
Ukraine, the city is also one of the main flashpoints for pro-Russian
subversives seeking to destabilize the political situation, and there is an
active separatist underground.
Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]
