Ukrainian pol sez Mukachevo gunfight was staged subject logo: DONBASWAR
2015-07-24
Posted by: badanov

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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Member of the Verkhovna Rada, Viktor Baloga, claimed the July 11th gunfight in Mukachevo between members of the Ukrainian Right Sector political group and local police was staged to force the national government to take over the area, according to Russian language news accounts.

Baloga said the government reaction was intended to kill off any political competition in the region.

Baloga's remarks came in the wake of the announcement by Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov that he ordered the unidentified chief of police in Muachevo removed pending investigation. Among the charges which surfaced immediately after the shootout was that local police were involved in organized criminal activities.

The Mukachevo shootout has been reported as a local matter between members of the Right Sector and members of a local organized crime group over smuggling routes into rebel occupied Donetsk and Lugansk. The shootout took place at a local spa, where Right Sector members had traveled to attempt to recruit club members into their group.

Since the shootout and despite earlier claims about connections to the Transcarpathian Right Sector group, the national leader of Right Sector, Dmitri Yarosh has denied knowing anyone in the group involved in the shootout. A total of two Right Sector members were killed in the shootout, another four were detained by Ukrainian Security Service, and 13 more are either at large or are holed up at a farmhouse near Mukachevo.

Baloga in remarks published on Thursday said he helped fund the Transcarpathia Right Sector group since its beginning in late 2013.

Baloga previously has held top posts in the national government of Viktor Yushchenko until 2009. He also was previously governor of Transcarpathia and mayor of Mukachevo.

He added his support of the local Right Sector group was "minuscule" compared to the support the government is giving to the Ukrainian Army unit, the 128th Brigade, now deployed in Mukachevo.

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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