Sep 12, 2015

Ukraine: Assassination attempt on Interior Minister by volunteer battalion commander foiled

Andriy Yangolenko, seen here with his wife, was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine on Friday in Kharkiv.

Security Service of Ukraine has told in a press-release of a sprawling assasination plot targeting key government officials uncovered jointly with Ukraine’s Main Military Prosecutor’s office. A volunteer battalion commander is among the suspects detained in Kkarkiv.

According to the SBU, the list of assasination target is topped by Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s head policeman since Yanukovych’s ouster. The plot allegedly included assasinations of key police officials, volunteers, businessmen and a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

Among those SBU says it has detained is Andriy Yangolenko, commander of a volunteer battalion “Slobozhanshina”. Earlier this year, his car was blown up in Kharkiv allegedly by a Russian-supplied mine.

This arrest comes amid what Ukrainian nationalists call a streak of repressions against them by Poroshenko’s administration. The Svoboda and Radical party leaders Tahnybok and Lyashkov have declared the grenade attack at Ukraine’s parliament a government plot targeting the nationalist volunteer fighters. Later, after a local Right Sector leader was detained in Odesa for alleged abduction a local councilman in April this year, Right Sector’s leader Dmytro Yarosh called Ukrainians to protest and topple Poroshenko’s administration he called an “internal occupation regime”.

Avakov has been earlier accused of murdering a prominent Right Sector member Oleksandr “Sasha Bily” Muzychko (who, according to official accounts, shot himself during an attempt to arrest him). During Avakov’s twitter hack in July, alleged Right Sector members posted on his timeline: “Arsen: Do you remember Sashko Biliy?”.