A prolonged crisis in Ukraine began on 21 November 2013, when then president Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union. This decision resulted in mass protests by its opponents, known as the "Euromaidan". After months of such protests, Yanukovych was ousted by the protesters on 22 February 2014, when he fled the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev. Following his ousting, unrest enveloped the largely Russophone eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, from where he had drawn most of his support. An ensuing political crisis in Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea resulted in the annexation of Crimea by Russia on 18 March. Subsequently, unrest in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine evolved into a war between the post-revolutionary Ukrainian government and pro-Russian insurgents.Ukraine became gripped by unrest when President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union on 21 November 2013. An organised political movement known as 'Euromaidan' demanded closer ties with the European Union, and the ousting of Yanukovych.[2] This movement was ultimately successful, culminating in the February 2014 revolution, which removed Yanukovych and his government. Right Sector (Ukrainian: Правий сектор, Pravy/Pravyi Sektor) is a far-right Ukrainian nationalist political party that originated in November 2013 as a paramilitary confederation at the Euromaidan protests in Kiev, where its street fighters fought against riot police.The coalition became a political party on 22 March 2014, at which time it was estimated to have perhaps 10,000 members.Right Sector became one of the main actors in the January 2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots, a part of the Euromaidan protests, in their later and more violent stages.On 19 January 2014 the organization encouraged its members to bring bottles to the protests in order to produce Molotov cocktails and bombs.The Yanukovich government classified it as an extremist movement and threatened its members with imprisonment.
Right Sector has been described as the most organized and most effective of the Euromaidan forces when it came to confronting police. Right Sector claims that it was the main organizer of violent resistance against armed attacks by the state at Euromaidan. Yarosh stated that the group had amassed a sizable arsenal of weapons;these include guns taken from police stations in Western Ukraine. The Associated Press has reported that it found no evidence of hate crimes by the group.
On 4 March 2014, the organization called on readers of its Vkontakte social-media page to edit the English- and Russian-language versions of the "Right Sector" entry in Wikipedia. It said that the encyclopedia's representations of its views as fascist and neo-Nazi were having consequences.[43]
According to political science professor Olexiy Haran, Right Sector's role in Ukrainian politics was "extremely exaggerated" by Ukrainians associated with Yanukovich.
Mr Putin said that its implementation was the right path to let eastern Ukraine “gradually stabilise”.
“Europe is just as interested in that as Russia,” he said. “No one wants conflict on the edge of Europe, especially armed conflict.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief has responded to Mr Putin’s comments, saying he is wrong because war is already the state of affairs in the country.
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