You're reading: Right Sector pickets parliament, demands Avakov’s resignation

Several hundred members and supporters of the militant nationalist Right Sector swarmed Ukraine’s parliament building for the second day in a row on March 28 to demand the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and a fair investigation into the suspicious death earlier in the week of one of its leaders.

Many in the group, outfitted in military fatigues, bulletproof vests and balaclavas, carried clubs, hunting knives and hatchets, but they did not use them. They remained peaceful and positioned outside the doors through the afternoon as lawmakers took part in a session inside.

Right Sector first gathered more than 1,000 members of the group – now an officially registered political party – on Constitution Square outside the Verkhovna Rada late on March 27. While they did not storm the building, several windows were shattered. Right Sector’s Kyiv leader Ihor Mazur said the first ones on the scene who broke the windows were not members of his group, but “provocateurs.”

“But separate citizens ran ahead. When we came here, the glass (in the parliament house near the central entrance) had been already smashed,” Ukrainian News reported Mazur as saying.

Radical Party leader Oleg Lyashko appeared from the building shortly after to try to temper the crowd, which chanted “Rev-o-lut-sia!” and picketed the building into the night.

Tempers cooled after independent lawmaker Yuriy Derevianko announced that an ad hoc interim commission would be set up in parliament to investigate the situation surrounding the suspicious death of Right Sector leader Oleksandr Muzychko, also known as Sashko Bily.

“Truth (in Muzychko’s death) should be established. Thus, an interim commission will be set up in parliament on March 28 to probe into the case with obligatory participation of Right Sector representatives,” he told Right Sector protesters on March 27.

A total of 232 of 279 lawmakers voted for the creation of the special commission decision on March 28. It will be led by independent Yuriy Derevianko, but is comprised of representatives of all factions as well as three representatives of public organizations.

Acting President and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov said before the vote on the creation of the commission that parliament “should ensure the clear and transparent verification of the circumstances surrounding the death of this man (Muzychko).”



Several hundred Right Sector members gather outside Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv on March 28. (Photo: Christopher J. Miller)

Avakov, while not addressing the demand for him to step down, said late on March 27 that within the next few days the Interior Ministry will publish audio files that may shed light on the events that led Muzychko’s death.

“Those who actually want to know the truth about Muzychko’s death during the shootout should take as much information as they need. The Interior Ministry will provide access to all the documents, material evidence, videos and audio facts,” Avakov wrote on Facebook. “Within the next couple of days the Interior Ministry will declassify the audio files linked with this case and will make them public. This will give society greater access to information about the activities of the suspects in this case. Everyone will be able to make his own decision on who is a hero and who is a vulgar bandit.”

Muzychko, 51, was killed on the night of March 24 in the western Ukrainian city of Rivne under mysterious circumstances as police tried to arrest him. He was wanted for hooliganism, links to and organized criminal group and making threats to public officials.

A husky man known for his violent temper, Muzychko featured in a series of videos posted on social media during the EuroMaidan anti-government protests in which he is seen assaulting a local prosecutor and threatening lawmakers with a Kalashnikov rifle while demanding compensation for the dozens of demonstrators killed at the hands of police during the protests.

“The person who holds the Kalashnikov is the person who calls the shots,” Muzychko was quoted as saying.

Right Sector, led by Dmytro Yarosh, a presidential candidate, played a significant role in EuroMaidan. The group claimed responsibility for the initial clashes on Kyiv’s Hrushevskoho Street on Jan. 18 and are known to have helped fend off police raids on EuroMaidan protesters at Independence Square over the course of the months-long protest.

Ukraine’s interim President Olexander Turchynov has condemned the militant tactics of nationalist Right Sector, saying the group is bent on “destabilization.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed Yarosh on the country’s wanted list for crimes against Russians and used the Right Sector as justification for invading Crimea and even possibly moving military forces into mainland Ukraine, saying the moves are necessary to protect ethnic Russians here.

Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.