Right Sector militants refuse to surrender
2015-07-22
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A group of six Right Sector militants said to be involved in the shootout in Mukachevo in western Ukraine last July 11th continues to be holed up in a small village near Mukachevo, according to Russian language news accounts.
The Mukachevo shootout killed four including two Right Sector members and two police, and wounded 13.
According to a news account posted on regnum.ru, nationwide leader of Right Sector Dmitri Yarosh said Tuesday that he has no contact or connection with that group. Just after the shootout ten days ago, Yarosh had alerted his groups in what he called a "combat alert" in reaction to the shootout.
In the wake of the shootout, Ukrainian officials detained four and are investigating 13 more in connection with the incident. The group of six are still in a plantation near Bobovische.
The shootout prompted Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko to appoint Gennady Moskal as new head of the Transcarpathia Regional Administration four days later. Moskal formerly was head of the Lugansk Regional Administration.
Moskal said Tuesday that the Transcarpathian group involved in the shootout had engaged in kidnapping for profit, torture, theft and extortion, all, he said, under the guise of "patriotic slogans," according to a new account in regnum.ru.
Moskal said that a new investigation will be opened of the 13 or so suspects associated with the local Right Sector group for robbery, which means that further arrests will be for that crime.
The shootout and its fallout has hurt Right Sector. In the immediate aftermath Yarosh claimed to be associated with the group involved, but recently denied any connection. This misstep by Yarosh, among others, has prompted Ukrainian officials to talk about once again cracking down on illegal armed formations.
Right Sector in the past provided effectives for several private military units involved in the fighting against Russian supplied rebels in Donetsk and Mugansk. Most of those units have since been folded into Ukrainian ministry of defense command structures. Ukrainian officials probably refer to illegal armed formations as the 18 battalions Yarosh claims still exist throughout Ukraine.
Yarosh, according to a new account in korrespondent.et, said he will organize a no confidence vote in all regions in Ukraine against the current government of Poroshenko. He also plans to organize such a vote in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The vote is obviously intended to remove the sitting prime minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Yarosh also will rename his group "National Liberation Movement of the Right Sector".
Right Sector in closely associated with the Maidan movement, which staged the 2013 coup. Its members have a reputation as a group of steroid taking, antisemitic Nazis.
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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