The Right Sector movement has ended a protest rally outside the presidential administration in Kyiv, and plans to hold an all-Ukrainian assembly on Tuesday, July 21.
“At the moment, the rally outside the presidential administration has
stopped. However, this does not mean that the Right Sector will stop
the struggle against the internal occupation… We will in no case abandon
Mukacheve rebels, and we will fight for them,” reads a statement posted
on the Right Sector’s page on Facebook on Saturday.
It says that the popular assembly dubbed “Away With Traitors in
Power!” organized by the Right Sector will start on Independence Square
at 19.00 on July 21.
It was reported earlier that a shootout involving people close to
parliament deputy Mykhailo Lanio, local police officers and members of
Right Sector took place in Mukacheve in Zakarpattia region on July 11.
Four people were killed and up to 14 were wounded in the exchange of
fire.
According to the Interior Ministry information, more than ten Right
Sector fighters were hiding in a forest in the vicinity of Mukacheve and
four were detained.
Right Sector claimed that the shootout was provoked by criminals led by Lanio whose smuggling pipeline they had blocked.
At the same time, a number of media outlets posted information saying
that the root of the conflict was redistribution of spheres of
influence in ‘protection’ of contraband, namely, cigarettes. There is a
theory that the Right Sector decided to steal leadership from the Lanio
group. Another theory suggested that the Right Sector had similar
intentions but acted in the interest of parliament member Viktor Baloha.
On July 14, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decided to create an Ad Hoc
Investigative Commission to investigate the circumstances of the
conflict in Zakarpattia region. The commission is to be headed by Petro
Poroshenko Bloc MP Mykola Palamarchuk. The parliamentary factions and
groups have delegated their representatives to the commission.
Leader of the Right Sector Dmytro Yarosh said on Friday that he
didn’t urge the organization’s fighters hiding in the forests outside
Mukacheve to surrender because he didn’t believe in guarantees of their
security, and if there was an order to liquidate them, the Right Sector
reserved the right to protect their fighters.
