Shooting in Mukachevo Result of Smuggling Redistribution - Poroshenko

Sputnik News

20:53 13.07.2015(updated 20:54 13.07.2015)

On Saturday, several Right Sector militants clashed with police officers and local business structures in the western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. A grenade launcher and machine guns were fired in the incident, which left 3 people dead and 13 injured, according to the latest data.

KIEV (Sputnik) – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said Monday that the cause of the recent shootout in the Ukrainian city of Mukachevo between militants of the far-right Right Sector group and police was down to a redistribution of smuggling streams.

'The President stressed that the essence of the conflict in Mukachevo is smuggling redistribution,' the statement on the presidential administration's website read.

Right Sector militants who were involved in Saturday's skirmish have gone into hiding in a nearby wood, saying they are prepared to lay down their weapons if such an order is given by their leader Dmitro Yarosh.

They explained their actions as combating smuggling which, according to them, involved local officials. Yarosh arrived on the scene, but an order to disarm has not yet been given. Negotiations are underway.

The Investigation Department of the Prosecutor's Office of the Transcarpathian Region, where the city of Mukachevo is located, opened a criminal case into the events, on the basis of 'a terrorist act' and 'the creation of a criminal organization.'

The Right Sector is a Ukrainian association of radical, ultranationist organizations that took an active part in the anti-government protests that led to the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

In November 2014, the Russian Supreme Court recognized the Right Sector as an extremist organization and banned its activity on the Russian territory.

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