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Ukraine's Right Sector nationalists seek to form separate brigade for warfare in Donbas

They expect to join official structures of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry retaining a special status and independence

Risht Sector activists marching in Kiev EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Risht Sector activists marching in Kiev

© EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, March 31. /TASS/. Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector intends to organize a separate brigade for operations against militias from the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, its leader said on Tuesday.

They expect to join official structures of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry retaining a special status and independence, the leader of the Russia-banned organization said.

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Dmytro Yarosh admitted, however, that there had been no official proposals for volunteer battalions to join the armed forces of Ukraine.

"I have seen proposals only on the Facebook page of [Ukrainian interior minister’s adviser Anton] Gerashchenko," Yarosh said. "Neither the president nor the leadership of the Defense Ministry have voiced such proposals to me," he added, mentioning an idea to offer him the position of adviser to the chief of the country’s General Staff.

"We will possibly organize a separate brigade," 112 Television quoted him as saying.

As for the pullout of volunteer battalions from the contact line in Donbas, Yarosh said "volunteer detachments cannot be pulled back as this is fraught with the loss of territory".

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