The huge brawl on Maidan (Independence Square) in the center of Kyiv that took place today, April 29, between Maidan self-defense activists and participants in a torchlight parade was ordered by the Russian special services, states Victoria Syumar, the deputy secretary of the National Security Council, on her Facebook.
“May will be one of the most difficult months in our nation’s history,” she writes. “This is obvious. The beginning of the May holidays, according to the version ordered by Russian special services, was supposed to begin today on Maidan with the classic ‘torchlight parade’ to Parliament. The forces of self-defense managed to stop it. However, we must remember this is just the beginning,” Syumar says.
As Espreso.TV reported earlier, a fight broke out between members of Maidan self-defense and a pseudo-nationalist group.
The political analyst Serhiy Hayday, who was at Maidan, reported the following:
“There was a column of young men, all dressed in new, black clothing with armbands with the name ‘Right Sector’ written in Russian. They came to the Maidan entrance, to the barricades near the post office. They were blocked and started fighting and screaming to disperse,” Hayday said.
The group of some 100 young men planned to go up Khreshchatyk Street in the direction of Instytutska Street but were blocked by the self-defense unit.
According to a witness, the fight broke out because the torchlight parade participants refused to remove their balaclavas and show their faces. During the fight firearms were used. Many activists had bats, sticks and other weaponry.
According to other reports, the torchlight participants wanted to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the government’s anti-terrorist operation by demonstrating in front of Parliament.
Sources:
http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/30/u_rnbo_vvzhayeyut_scho_smoloskypnu_khodu_yaka_sprychynyla_biyku_na_maydani_zamovyly_rosiyski_specsluzhby
http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/29/na_maydani_biyka_mizh_biycyamy_samooborony_i_psevdonacionalistamy
