UKRAINE-CRISIS/RIGHT SECTOR-CHECKPOINTS Ukraine's Right Sector sets up checkpoints to block police after shootout

Record ID: 147453

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/RIGHT SECTOR-CHECKPOINTS Ukraine's Right Sector sets up checkpoints to block police after shootout
  • Date: 12th July 2015
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JULY 12, 2015) (REUTERS) SPOKESMAN OF RIGHT SECTOR 13-TH RESERVE BATTALION, OLEXIY BYK, AND RIGHT SECTOR SPOKESMAN, ARTEM SKOROPADSKY, ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) SPOKESMAN OF RIGHT SECTOR 13-TH RESERVE BATTALION, OLEXIY BYK, SAYING: "With these checkpoints we are closing roads which can be used by police to deploy forces to surround
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8D3VIQFUB49EWI3OMBXEUCX25
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Ukraine's far-right group Right Sector said it had started on Sunday (July 12) to set up checkpoints to block police from reaching the country's west, after a deadly shootout in the western city of Mukacheve, in Zakarpattya region, between members of the group's paramilitary volunteer corps and police.
    A group of uniformed people with Right Sector emblems were seen setting up one improvised checkpoint on the outskirts of Ukraine's capital Kiev on Sunday evening. Police were seen in the vicinity.
    Spokesman of the Right Sector 13th Reserve Battalion Olexiy Byk said that the number of checkpoints will depend on the number of police units that may be sent to the west.
    "With these checkpoints we are closing roads which can be used by police to deploy forces to surround our comrades in Zakarpattya. The number of the checkpoints will depend on how far police will push to make their way to that region," he said at a news conference in Kiev, adding that the Right Sector will not stop civilian vehicles.
    "We want to stress, those checkpoints are set up not to stop civilian cars, but not to let police forces, National Guard or some other units, which will be deployed for the blockade of Mukacheve and Zakarpattya," he said.
    During the same news conference the group's spokesman Artem Skoropadsky demanded the resignation of the country's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, and police officials of western Zakarpattia region.
    Rights Sector said its members involved in the shootout in Mukacheve on Saturday were trying to "stop flows of contraband".
    Officials accuse them of attacking a civilian property belonged to a local deputy and attacking police officers with guns and grenade launchers.
    Right Sector played a big role in Kiev street protests in 2014 that toppled former Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich, setting off a confrontation with Russia and sparking the worst Russia-West crisis since the end of the Cold War.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register