Right Sector Will Not Lay Down Arms by Poroshenko's Order

Sputnik News

13:47 14.07.2015(updated 13:52 14.07.2015)

Right Sector is not an illegal armed formation, but a 'volunteer corps which protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian nation', Artyom Skoropadsky, press secretary for the organization, claimed.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's statement on the disarmament of all illegal armed groups has nothing to do with Right Sector, Artyom Skoropadsky, press secretary for the organization, said.

On Monday during a briefing of the military cabinet of the National Council for Security and Defense, Poroshenko demanded that the Interior Ministry, the Security Service of Ukraine, and other law enforcement agencies disarm all illegal armed groups operating in Ukraine.

'Poroshenko's statement is related to illegal armed formations. We [Right Sector] are not an illegal armed group. An illegal armed group is bandits. And we are a volunteer corps which protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukrainian nation. So, the statement is not about us,' Skoropadsky said.

Right Sector was formed as a coalition of nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations during the Maidan protests in Kiev at the end of 2013.

The organization has played a major role in violent clashes with police, and played a key role in escalating last year's violence in Kiev which culminated in the February 2014 coup.

In November 2014, Russia's Supreme Court blacklisted Right Sector as an extremist organization and banned it in Russia. Earlier, Russia launched a criminal case against leader Dmitry Yarosh for public incitement of terrorism.

© Sputnik