The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has renewed its call on fighters from the Right Sector to give up weapons in Mukacheve, while guaranteeing them an objective inquiry into the July 11 events, says Vitaliy Malikov, SBU deputy chairman and the head of the Anti-Terror Center.
“We urge them to surrender and give up weapons. A pre-trial investigation of two criminal cases is underway. Fifteen searches are being carried out. We are on the side of the law and guarantee an objective and unbiased inquiry. Such is the position of the Ukrainian president and the SBU chairman,” Malikov told reporters at a briefing in Mukacheve on Sunday, July 13.
“If they (RS fighters) are willing, we are ready to hold a dialogue; if not, we will start apprehending,” he said. “I am appealing to you once again: come forward and surrender. This will be the only way out of the situation,” he said
“The inquiry is carried out with respect to all parties to the conflict,” Malikov said.
For his part, Oleksiy Byk, a spokesman for the Right Sector 13th battalion, said RS was setting up roadblocks to detain law enforcement forces which could be sent to Zakarpattia as reinforcements.
“We are blocking the roads which could be used by police to redeploy forces to round up our brothers in Zakarpattia. The number of roadblocks will depend on the effort the police are making to get into the region,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Sunday.
“These roadblocks are there not to stop civilian vehicles but to stop police or any other forces that will be sent as reinforcement to Zakarpattia, and in particular Mukacheve,” Byk added
He also said that the first roadblock has “already appeared on the Zhytomyr highway outside Kyiv.”
