Yesterday the Ukrainian Interior Ministry ordered all paramilitary organizations in the country to immediately lay down their arms. The move is a response to threats made by ultra-right radicals from the Right Sector group who have declared "war" on Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for the recent death of one of the ultra-right’s most brutal leaders, Oleksandr Muzychko.
An international arrest warrant had been issued for Muzychko on charges of murdering and torturing Russian soldiers in Chechnya during the 1990s. The online news server of Czech Television, ČT 24, reports that Muzychko died in Rivne na Volyni as he was being arrested by Ukrainian police.
News server newsru.com reports that Muzychko was the leader of radicals in western Ukraine under his nom de guerre, Sasha Bílý ("Sasha White") and held strong influence over local officials, including the local prosecutor. Muzychko had been labeled a wanted gangster by the Ukrainian authorities and, according to their information, suffered fatal injuries during his arrest.
During the raid by a special police commando against Muzychko’s gang at a café in Rivne, a total of three members of the criminal gang were apprehended and a Makarov pistol and Kalashnikov assault rifle were confiscated. The gang members were transported to Kiev and interrogated on suspicion of banditry.
Another six Right Sector activists were arrested yesterday in Poltava. The current leader of the Right Sector, Dmytro Yarosh, who wants to run for President of Ukraine in the May elections, is said to be extremely bitter about Muzychko’s death and unwilling to passively watch what he considers to be the counter-revolutionary efforts of the Interior Ministry.
Yarosh has called on Interior Minister Avakov to immediately resign and demanded that the police commando unit responsible for the death of his fellow fighter be subjected to exemplary punishment. "Everyone who contributed to [Muzychkov’s] murder must be punished," ČT 24 quoted Yarosh as saying at a press conference.
The response of the Interior Minister was uncompromising. "If a group of bandits is going to threaten a minister, then I am prepared to face any challenge," Avakov emphasized.
The Interior Minister has issued a statement saying that all fighting units of the Right Sector and all other similar groups must immediately hand over their weapons. "All such formations will be considered illegal and will be treated as such. The process will be decisive and harsh," the ministry statement reads.
Russia has also issued an international arrest warrant for Yarosh. The Right Sector, moreover, is transforming itself from a loose association of radical nationalists into a political party.
The Kremlin and the Russian media are criticizing the entire new political team in Ukraine, as they believe it is connected to anti-Russian chauvinists and nationalists. Yarosh has not just been called a person with neo-Nazi tendencies by Moscow, but also by many Western diplomats.
The Ukrainian ultra-right has exploited the fall of the Yanukovych government to the maximum. The Right Sector group only came together last November at the start of the protests against Yanukovych when several nationalist groups combined forces.
The number of Right Sector members has been constantly rising ever since. Another strongly nationalist, ultra-right party is the Freedom Party, whose head, Oleh Tyhanybok, is known for his anti-Semitic remarks; the party first made it into the Ukrainian Parliament in 2012.
Today Freedom is part of the new governing coalition there, where Tyhanybok is Deputy Prime Minister and Freedom representatives hold three other ministries. Of the 450 members of the Ukrainian Parliament, more than 30 are from Freedom, including an MP who recently physically assaulted the head of Ukrainian television.
