Law enforcers are searching for nine members of the Right Sector, who are hiding in the vicinity of the town of Mukacheve in Zakarpattia Oblast, Leader of the Right Sector Party Dmytro Yarosh has said.
“There has been no accurate information, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said there were six people. But judging by the fact that criminal proceedings were launched against 13 people, and four are already in prison, this leaves us with nine,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on July 21 at the end of the Right Sector congress.
Yarosh noted that the conflict in Mukacheve was a “provocation, for which, unfortunately, our guys fell.” “We are talking about criminal gangs. Our guys stopped contraband flows, which provoked response from the criminal gangs, who merged with the police – and this is also the fault of both the president, his government and the Verkhovna Rada – and this led to violent opposition. In no way we approve of such things… In this case, this was reasonable self-defense,” he said.
Asked by journalists whether his party members came to the congress armed, the leader of the Right Sector replied in the negative. “You can see for yourself that these people do not have any weapons, right now there is no need for it, at the moment weapons should be in the front line, firing at the enemies of Ukraine, who attacked our country,” Yarosh said.
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 Oblast on July 11. According to different data, up to five 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 Oblast. 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 earlier 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.
