Ukrainian president announces “anti-bandit” raid

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the launch of a large-scale special operation with participation of all security forces.

“I have instructed all law enforcers to launch a campaign against bandits so as not to leave unpunished those who killed Ukrainians,” Poroshenko said during a meeting with the National Security Service. He did not specify which regions the campaign will cover but there are grounds for supposing that he meant not Donbass, but a number of central and eastern regions involved in an oligarchic war for the oil sector.

The pretext for Poroshenko’s decision was the recent incident near Volnovakha, where Ukrainian soldiers detained three trucks with smuggled goods. A group of Dnipro-1 battalion (a force controlled by Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Region Igor Kolomoisky) appeared shortly afterwards to help the smugglers. In a following skirmish, one of the National Guards killed National Security Service captain Viktor Manzik.

According to Poroshenko, this incident has shown that the internal enemy is no less dangerous than the external one.

“So, I have instructed the law enforcers to investigate the case and to punish all those guilty. And neither parliamentary seats nor pocket armies will protect them from responsibility,” Poroshenko said.

As EAD reported earlier, last week Kolomoisky came to Kiev to fight for his assets, Ukrnafta and Ukrtransnafta, with arms in hand. He accused Poroshenko of trying to take away his business. Poroshenko reacted by dismissing Kolomoisky from the post of Dnipropetrovsk governor “on his own will.”

Experts are sure that now Kolomoisky will start enlarging his army. And the first to join will be officers who have been disappointed with the military policy of their government.

Following Poroshenko’s decision, Chief of the National Security Service Valentin Nalyvaichenko said that the president had instructed him to disarm all armed people inside the Ukrnafta’s office in Kiev.