Shootout between Ukrainian militants and police leave 4 dead
2015-07-12
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of four dead and 14 wounded are the toll in a shootout between Ukrainian Right Sector militants and Ukrainian security forces in western Ukraine Saturday afternoon, according to Russian language news accounts.
According to a series of news accounts in korrespondent.net news outlet, the shootout took place in Mukachevo in western Ukraine at a sports bar called "Antares" on Ulitsa Lermontov near the former Komsomolsk park, where the pro Maidan militants associated with the Ukrainian Pravii Sektor fired on interior ministry troops and local police using small arms, 12.7mm heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.
A total of two Right Sector militants and two more Ukrainian police special forces operators have been killed.
According to the report, a group of Right Sector recruiters were scheduled to meet with some local residents at a cafe, before police arrived. An unidentified member of the Right Sector group opened fire on police. The firing by the combatants was so intense that two police and two civilian cars were destroyed. A police checkpoint in western Mukachevo was also said to have been destroyed by Right Sector militants.
The remaining members of the group then moved to a farmhouse at the western edge of town, barricading themselves inside. A report in zakarpattya.net.ua said that fighting continues in the western hills around the farmhouse.
According to a news account posted in regnum.ru, Alexander Sachko, characterized in the news piece as a local extremist leader, claimed that police and armed gangs opened fired on Right Sector militants without warning.
Police told korrespondent.net that some of the fighting was over smuggling routes between local criminal gangs and a group associated with the Right Sector called the reserve battalion of the Right Sector-Transcarpathia. The zakarpattya.net.ua report said that a local gang surrounded the Right Sector militants as they tried to recruit locals, then local police and SBU operators surrounded both groups.
Right Sector groups are no strangers to smuggling, especially into rebel occupied areas of Donetsk. Last February a Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officer was killed in a shootout between smugglers associated with Right Sector groups in Dnepropetrovsk and SBU operators. At that time, a three truck convoy near Volkhonavka was stopped by SBU troops while trying to smuggle untaxed liquor and tobacco across the lines into Donetsk. A subsequent SBU operation rounded up dozens of Right Sector members and led to several tense confrontations between them and the police over the issue of disarming.
The Antares Sports Bar is owned by former member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada legislature Mikail Lano, who formed part of an opposition group Eremeev. Antares is a complex of saunas, a gym and a swimming pool.
At the moment the situation in Mukachevo is that the main roads leading into town are blocked and the town is locked down by police. According to the regnum.ru article, the Prosecutor's Office of the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine demanded the remaining members of the Right Sector group surrender their arms, but were rebuffed by an unidentified leader saying the group will "fight to the last."
Right Sector leader Dmitri Yarosh released a statement after the shootout demanding an investigation into whoever, police or militants, had opened fire.
According to a regnum.ru report, Yarosh said: "It is necessary to immediately detain the bandits and police officials who gave the order to open fire to kill"
Yarosh is said to be in Kiev to speak with Ukrainian central government officials "to prevent further bloodshed". Reports are that Yarosh has placed several Right Sector reserve battalions on "combat alert." Yarosh did not elaborate on what the precaution means.
Right Sector militants throughout Ukraine, but especially in Dnepropetrovsk form the main core of fighters in the several volunteer military units which have been fighting against Russian backed rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk since the spring before last.
Right Sector militants also are said to be responsible the the deaths at a Trades Union building fire in Odessa in May, 2014, and have gained such a reputation of brutality against Russian speaking Ukrainians that Russian backed guerrillas in Ukraine have gone out of their way to fire on them.
A deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Irina Friz, said that she suspects Russians are behind the unrest characterized by the incident.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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