Paramilitaries fight with police blocking their war zone intervention

Ukrainian paramilitaries and veterans attempting to intervene
in the latest military withdrawal in the Luhansk region fought with police at a
local checkpoint trying to block them, the pravda.com.ua news site said on Oct.
9. No one was injured when police fired several shots in the air. One police
officer was injured when a car ran over his foot. The conflict at the Kreminna
checkpoint emerged when police had reportedly demanded the fighters be
accompanied by Andriy Biletskiy, the leader of the Azov paramilitary force who
called a national mobilization to the towns of Zolote and Petrivske in the
Luhansk region, where the next military withdrawals are scheduled to occur. “We
will pressure them to the end. We will not leave Zolote. This is a Ukrainian
town and it will remain so,” Biletskiy wrote on his pravda.com.ua blog.

Russian-backed fighters directed fire on Oct. 9 at the
territory in the town of Zolote that is planned for withdrawing forces with the
use of mortar fire, the press service of the Joint Forces Operation reported
that day. In all, 17 ceasefire violations by the Russian-backed forces were
reported throughout Donbas on Oct. 9. A withdrawal can’t begin until a
ceasefire in Zolote has been achieved for at least seven days, Foreign Minister
Vadym Prystaiko said on Oct. 7.

Zenon Zawada: It remains to be seen to what extent the opponents of the military
withdrawal will take their resistance. Also unclear are the tactics the
Zelensky administration will use to thwart their efforts. Needless to say, this
has the potential to become a destabilizing conflict on a national scale. It
reflects the biggest divide in Ukrainian society today, which is between those
who want peace with Russia at any cost, and those opposed to capitulation.