The events in Mukacheve, Zakarpattia oblast, were a result of the conflict of interests between illegal armed groups and a mafia overtly cooperating with law enforcers, says Yuriy Lutsenko, the leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction.
He was referring to a shooting incident that occurred in Mukacheve on July 11 between members of Right Sector, an extremist organization banned in Russia, and police officers, in which three people were killed and at least eleven injured.
“The events in Mukacheve became a point of collision between two malicious phenomena: illegal militant groups and the well-rooted mafia. No patriotism can justify the presence of people armed to their teeth 1,600 kilometers from the frontline. Crime has no political color. Similarly, no words about stability can substitute the fight against organized smugglers and drug dealers who openly collaborate with local law enforcers and authorities,” Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
He noted that he had done all he could to speed up the passage of a police bill “precisely because police clearly gave up in the fight against multiple criminal groups enjoying the protection by regional clans and bearing patriotic flags.” “The success of the Kyiv police patrol will remain just a facade reform unless we urgently reload local departments in our regions by recruiting more personnel and selecting on a competition basis new police chiefs and their deputies… This is exactly how the Interior Ministry, too, must act concurrently and immediately,” Lutsenko stressed.
He also stressed the need to urgently appoint a “non-partisan professional” as the national police chief. “Replacing corrupt and demoralized staff in the center and locally will allow to renew the offensive on all manifestations of banditry. This will allow to stop the spread of armed violence and restore the state monopoly on the lawful use of force. Otherwise, Ukraine will turn into a territory of chaos and lawlessness, as dreamt about by the Kremlin,” Lutsenko said.
