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Ukraine's extremists forming battalion in Donetsk region

KIEV, April 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's radical nationalist group Right Sector has begun to form special battalion 'Donbass' in the Donetsk region, Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh said on Wednesday.

"We're coordinating all our actions with the leadership of Ukraine's Council of National Security and Defence, the Interior Ministry and the Security Service," said Yarosh.

The special unit will include activists and trained fighters of Right Sector to assist secret services.

He underlined that Right Sector activists and fighters were ready to help secret services. According to Yarosh, he has no fears that Right Sector's participation in the special operation in the east of the country might provoke clashes with Donbass population.

Earlier on Wednesday, Yarosh said Sector had moved its headquarters from Kiev to Dnepropetrovsk.

"It's easier to monitor the situation in Donbass from Dnepropetrovsk," he said.

Local media reported a meeting in camera between Yarosh and head of the Dnepropetrovsk regional administration Igor Kolomoisky.

The Right Sector leader denied receiving funding from oligarchs. "We're not using oligarchs' money in politics, but when a war is on, we do not object to their funding the army," he said.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Right Sector, despite the Geneva accords, remained quite active.

"We agreed in Geneva that any violence should be stopped," the diplomat said. "But the next day, /parliament-appointed acting President/ Turchinov ordered the army to shoot at unarmed people participating in peaceful protests. In Geneva, we also agreed that extremists should be disarmed, but Right Sector is still active."

In Russia, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Yarosh on charges of public calls for terrorist and extremist activities which he had made through mass media. Yarosh was put on the international wanted list. Moscow's Basmanny court sanctioned his arrest in absentia.