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Ukraine's Right Sector battalion heading to Kiev to take part in protest rally — spokesman

Right Sector spokesman Dmitry Savchenko said the fighters are not armed
Right Sector activists during the rally in Kiev, Jul. 11 AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Right Sector activists during the rally in Kiev, Jul. 11
© AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

KIEV, July 12. /TASS/. A battalion of Ukraine’s Right Sector radical organization has left the zone of military operation in Donbas and is heading for Kiev to take part in an open-ended protest rally, Right Sector spokesman Dmitry Savchenko said on Sunday.

"The fifth battalion is heading for Kiev. They are coming here to take part in protest rallies. It doesn’t mean they are armed. But there is need for an open-ended protest action and these men must take part in it," he told Ukraine’ television Channel 5.

Earlier, supporters of the Right Sector, an extremist organization outlawed in Russia, announced an open-ended protest rally in front of the presidential administration building. Currently, about 200 people are taking part in the rally. Protesters demand the resignations of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and police chiefs of the Trans-Carpathian region, and amnesty to killers of journalist Oles Buzina.

On Saturday, July 11, gunmen of the Right Sector extremist group, which is banned in Russia, opened fire from small arms at their opponents while discussing the "redistribution of spheres of influence" in Mukachevo. The extremists later opened fire from rifles, heavy machine guns and grenade launchers at the police who arrived at the scene. They destroyed several police vehicles and also set fire to a traffic police checkpoint and a petrol station. As a result, three people were killed and 11 more were wounded. Some of the gunmen were later blocked in a wooded area near the city. The Right Sector says two of its gunmen were killed and four wounded. Prosecutors described the incident as a terrorist attack.