Lvov activistis are demanding autonomy for Galicia

Original: Boris Rozhin / Colonel Cassad LiveJournal
Translated from Russian by @ThreeTimesNine / Edited by Moti Nissani

Original: Cassad.net

Pravyi Sektor tried to intervene, but despite the protests of the Pravyi Sektor Lviv chapter, about three hundred activists from various social organizations came out today with demands for real autonomy for the Lviv region. The rally of the supporters of Galician autonomy began at 16:30 in front of the Lviv Regional State Administration. The protesters blocked traffic on Vinnichenko street. Participants at the rally were holding placards that read: “Poroshenko has betrayed his people!”, “Special status for Galicia—real autonomy for the Lviv region!”, “Galicia is Europe!”, “Stop feeding the thieves in Kiev!” “Taxes should remain in the Lviv region!”

Activists of Pravyi Sektor tried to block the protest rally; however, as the main forces of the Pravyi Sektor are currently in Mukachevo, the “autonomists” were able to hold their event despite the interference.

The day before the “autonomists’” campaign, the Lviv chapter of the Pravyi Sektor issued a statement, in which it called on law enforcement agencies to prevent the gathering: “The Pravyi Sektor calls on the Lviv SBU and the Ministry of the Interior to prevent manifestations of separatism in Ukraine and, in particular, in Lviv. We would like to remind you that in the Donbass everything also began under the guise of “peaceful protests”, which were orchestrated by the Kremlin propagandists and then escalated into a war. If you do not stop such displays now, it may be too late tomorrow. In case of inactivity on the part of the SBU and the Ministry of the Interior, we reserve the right to fight all manifestations of separatism in Western Ukraine.” However, the organizers of the protest denied any connection between their actions and the activities of the separatists.

Danilo Povidalchik, the organizer of the rally, said: “At a time when a constitutional reform has been announced, we, the residents of the cradle of Ukrainian statehood—Galicia—risk becoming second-class citizens in our own country. In the circumstances when corruption has not been defeated by the central government, the money that rightfully belongs to the workers and the pensioners of our region ends up in the pockets of the thieving Kiev officials. Nothing has changed since the days of Yanukovych. Therefore, we demand real autonomy for the Lviv region as part of the Constitutional reform process that has been announced by President Petro Poroshenko.”

The participants in the event also demanded that Galicia be given the right to implement an independent customs policy, a special foreign trade regime with the European Union and an autonomous tariff policy. The resolution adopted at the rally and incorporating these requirements has been conveyed to the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Oleg Sinyutka, and personally handed to him at the building of the Regional State Administration.

Post Scriptum: Separation of Galicia would have been a wonderful gift—they could have devoted themselves to building their “European Piedmont” separately and apart from everyone else and stopped polluting everyone’s minds with their Banderite ideology. But who would let them?

*     *     *

Things for the Pravyi Sektor could not be going worse. Porohsenko, having secured support from the Americans, is threatening to conduct yet another ATO (the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” in the Donbas—Ed.) and to deal with them once and for all. Yarosh is desperately looking for a way out, having realized that his forces are no match for the Ukrainian security apparatus. This evening, he started begging forgiveness, even though only a few hours earlier he called for Poroshenko’s resignation and for the dissolution of the Supreme Rada. Looks like Yarosh was finally told in no uncertain terms that he has lost his sense of reality.

Original: Gazeta.ru

Dmitry Yarosh (the leader of the Pravyi Sektor) said that he accepts responsibility for what happened in Mukachevo and proposed that Kiev offers amnesty to the fighters. In case of refusal, he threatened resistance and protest actions.

“I am aware of our responsibility for what happened there,” Yarosh was quoted as saying by Channel 112, “They are my brothers—I fought with them, took Karlovka, Avdeevka, Peski, stayed with them under shelling, ate from the same pot, and we will not abandon them. In the autumn of last year, I drew the authorities’ attention to the fact that veterans who return from there, from the “front line,” see the world differently, and if the government does not radically bring order to the state, does not address the issues that are most pressing for the Ukrainian people, then they (the Pravyi Sektor militants—Ed.) will resolve these issues in their own way, to their own liking.”

According to Yarosh, when the Pravyi Sektor fighters opened fire, “they fought with the system, did what they felt was right, just as they fought at the front lines before that.”

The events in Mukachevo have led to a political statement, but there has been no break with the Pravyi Sektor.

Yarosh proposed that amnesty be offered to the Pravyi Sektor fighters that opened fire in Mukachevo, in exchange for Pravyi Sektor joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces: “They would pay for their sins with their own blood. For the fact that they succumbed to a provocation.” The head of the Pravyi Sektor says that unregistered weapons left over from last year’s revolution and that ended up with the fighters played a role in what happened. From now on, Yarosh and his people are willing to identify unregistered weapons and deliver them to the area of the ATO.

According to Yarosh, in the case of an assault, the fighters encircled in the forest [near Mukachevo] are prepared to defend themselves. He is surprised that to fight a couple dozen Pravyi Sektor members the security forces sent spetsnaz (special forces) commandos with aviation and armoured vehicles: “five in every village.”

On Friday, President Poroshenko dismissed the heads of district administrations of the Transcarpathian region. Earlier, he appointed Gennady Moskal, who had previously served as the head of the Ministry of the Interior in the region, to be the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Administration. Moskal has the notoriety of a security forces hardliner and a man who radically fought against smuggling in the area of the ATO. The new governor has already laid blame on the regional prosecutor’s office for its corrupt ties with the soldiers of the Pravyi Sektor.

At a conference on Friday, Yarosh announced an urgent meeting of the Pravyi Sektor, to be held next week in the Maidan to protest the “disinformation campaign” orchestrated by Kiev. The commander of the Pravyi Sektor Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Andrei Stempitsky, said that about a thousand militants are fighting on the front lines, and several thousand are in reserve. However, as shown by previous actions of the Pravyi Sektor, the organization is not really capable of mass protests.

Post Scriptum: If previously the Praviy Sector militants fought desperately against being incorporated into the security forces subordinated to Poroshenko, now they are asking for it as charity, no longer threatening to seize state power, but to perish heroically. This is nothing more than cheap pathos from a desperate loser. The only question that remains is whether Poroshenko is prepared to make any concessions to Praviy Sector or if he intends to finish them off, as he already did with Nalyvaichenko and Kolomoisky. In principle, Pravyi Sector dying a glorious death will not be the worst scenario, but the chances of something like that happening are slim to none.