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Deadly Shootout in Ukraine Sees Two Right Sector Members Killed By Police

© AP PhotoTwo police cars on fire are seen at the site of unrest in Mukhachevo, Western Ukraine, Saturday, July 11, 2015
Two police cars on fire are seen at the site of unrest in Mukhachevo, Western Ukraine, Saturday, July 11, 2015 - Sputnik International
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The head of the Right Sector in the Zakarpattia region confirmed the group was involved in the incident, and that the local police opened fire on them without warning.

A participant looks on during a rally held by members of the far-right radical group Right Sector, representatives of the Ukrainian volunteer corps and their supporters, with tyres set on fire seen in the background, in central Kiev, Ukraine, July 3, 2015 - Sputnik International
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KIEV (Sputnik) — Two fighters of Ukraine's Right Sector far-right paramilitary group were killed and four wounded in a shootout in Ukraine's western town of Mukachevo on Saturday, the group’s press service said.

Earlier on in the day, Ukrainian media reported that one person was killed and nine injured in Mukachevo, after some unidentified people seized a local sport complex and exchanged gunfire with police. Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said that three attackers were killed and three policemen and four civilians were injured in Mukachevo.

The mayor of Mukachevo later added that a total of 10 people were injured during the shootout, including five civilians and five members of law enforcement agencies.

Alexander Sachko, the head of the Right Sector group in the Zakarpattia region confirmed that the group's members were involved in the incident and said that the local police opened fire on them without warning.

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"After fierce fighting, two Right Sector fighters were killed, four – wounded, two of them – seriously. Having taken the dead and wounded with them, the unit [members] fought their way out from the bandit’s encirclement," the paramilitary group's press service said.

The press service also said that currently the whole Right Sector movement has been placed on high alert "and will not allow anyone to shoot off its brothers."

Right Sector activists also call for a protest rally Saturday in front of the presidential administration building.

"A rally is being gathered near the [building of] the administration of the president of Ukraine to oppose what is going on now, because it is terror… We will welcome everyone who comes," Artyom Skoropadsky told RIA Novosti.

The group demands the immediate arrest of Ukrainian lawmaker Mykhailo Lanyo, who, they believe, is directly linked to the shootout, as well as all the police officers who took part in the incident or ordered it.

A spokesman for the Right Sector's Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Andrei Sharaskin, said in an interview with Ukraine’s 112 television that the incident in Mukachevo was linked directly to the efforts by his group to block smuggling routes in the region. Sharaskin also said that Right Sector members fighting against smuggling repeatedly received threats.

The Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said that the country’s prosecutor general launched an investigation into the Mukachevo shootout.

The Right Sector paramilitary has played a major role in violent clashes with police, which resulted in the February 2014 coup.

In January 2015, the Russian Ministry of Justice added the Right Sector to its list of non-commercial organizations whose activity in Russia is prohibited.

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