KIEV, Ukraine
A member of Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector party opened fire late Monday night in a city center cafe, wounding Deputy Mayor Bogdan Dubas and two members of the country’s national self defense units.
The attack occurred near Kiev’s Dniepr Hotel, the administrative headquarters of the Right Sector. The self defense units are an auxiliary security force made up of former Maidan fighters supported by the Ukranian government.
“The gunman burst into the cafe and opened fire before barricading himself in one of the restaurant’s rooms. He later escaped to the Dniepr Hotel before being taken into custody by the police,” acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in an official statement.
Avakov later ordered the hotel to be sealed and the group’s offices vacated. A standoff between the Right Sector and interior ministry troops, backed by national self defense units, continued until early Tuesday morning.
The interior ministry later reported that several firearms were confiscated from the Right Sector’s hotel offices.
Tensions between Ukraine’s interim government and the Right Sector have been increasing in recent weeks as the group blames the government for its inaction in the Crimea crisis, which resulted in the region being unilaterally annexed by Russia.
The Right Sector were prominent participants in the Euromaidan protests that led to the ouster of fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
The movement’s leader, Dmitry Yarosh, declared his candidacy for the presidency in late March.
Yarosh has repeatedly demanded Avakov’s resignation after prominent hardline Right Sector leader Oleksandr Muzychko was killed by police on March 24. Muzychko had been the subject of an international arrest warrant for his alleged role in the torture and killing of Russian prisoners during the 1994-96 First Chechen War.
Ukraine’s security officials hinted last week that all armed groups in the Maidan Square, including the Right Sector, must disband. The group responded by surrounding Ukraine’s parliament – the Verkhovna Rada – and threatened to storm the building if the order was put into effect.
Russia has linked the Right Sector’s ultra-nationalist ideology and reverence of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator and anti-Soviet leader, as a justification for invading Crimea ‘to protect the ethnic Russian population from Ukrainian fascists’.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
