A few days ago the Pravy Sektor armed branch shot with rocket launchers and heavy machine guns against the police. A battleground more than a thousand kilometers away from the Donbass and the real war. And that once again forcefully highlights the problem of militias in Ukraine.
It looked like a scene from the front, like we see almost every day. Two dead, burning cars, rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. But the battle took place in Mukacheve, a town in Transcarpathia within shouting distance from the border with the European Union and more than a thousand kilometers from the war in the east. Most importantly, it involved the police and the militia of Pravy Sektor, ultranationalist organization, political party and volunteer battalion led by a MP and high official, Dmytro Yarosh.
According to Pravy Sektor spokesman Oleksiy Byk, their men have acted as true patriots, replacing the corrupt authorities to combat the lucrative business of smuggling across the border. A traffic that fills the pockets of police officers, local politicians, judges, and even some members of parliament.
The incident once again urgently highlights the problem of militias formed in the aftermath of Euromaidan. Poroshenko is committed to bring order to this jungle of heavy armed battalions, incorporating many in the regular army and dismantling others. But it is a job far from easy.
Tornado
Just a few weeks ago, when they knew that their group would be dissolved, the men of battalion Tornado barricaded themselves in their headquarters, mined the perimeter and threatened to open fire on the National Guard if they approached. It is a bunch of a hundred men, half of which with a criminal record as long as a telephone directory. Some of them are known members of criminal organizations and the entire battalion – formed from the ashes of the previously dissolved battalion Shakhtersk – weigh heavy suspicions of violence, crimes, torture and kidnappings. According Hennady Moskal, the governor of Lugansk region in which they operated, the members of the Tornado “have taken the path of crime, attempting to cover it up by posing as fighters against imaginary smuggling.”
It is not the only episode of its kind. Last April private militiamen of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky seized the state oil company Ukrtransnafta headquarters. Hooded gunmen in camouflage and armed with AK-47, in the capital. A show of force by Kolomoisky, then governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, against Poroshenko. It is clear that all this poses a big problem of democracy and rule of law.
Dealing with Pravy Sektor
The evening after the battle of Mukacheve, several hundred people demonstrated in Kiev in support of Pravy Sektor. The organization has a fairly popular support, especially in the western provinces and in the city of Lviv. But above all, his image even among those who do not support it directly is the one of a patriotic organization that acts for the sake of the motherland. And for many Ukrainians, the fact that its men have opened fire on the corrupted police is overall acceptable.
Seen from here, Pravy Sektor appears a little different. An ultranationalist, xenophobic and homophobic party, that since the days of Euromaidan exploited events to bring on its cause, even against the Russian and Russian-speaking population of the country. Its battalion fighting in the east is responsible – according to Amnesty International – of serious war crimes, kidnappings and torture of innocent civilians. It is evident that such an organization cannot operate outside the rules of the state. It is evident that Dmytro Yarosh cannot at the same time hold public office and command a militia that does not respond to the institutions. It is evident that Poroshenko cannot postpone dealing with Pravy Sektor.
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A few days ago the Pravy Sektor armed branch shot with rocket launchers and heavy machine guns against the police. A battleground more than a thousand kilometers away from the Donbass and the real war. And that once again forcefully highlights the problem of militias in Ukraine.
