Luhansk tense after armed fights among breakaway republic’s leaders

Today’s situation is calm but tense in Luhansk after reports
of armed fights among the self-declared republic’s leadership that began two
days ago, news reports said. The OSCE special monitoring mission noted that
armed forces continue to block a part of the city center, though it didn’t say
who controlled them. Igor Plotnitsky, the “president” of the self-declared
Luhansk People’s Republic, has fortified the defense of the building in which
he has established his base against armed rivals, reported the liga.net news
agency this morning. More armored vehicles and men with automatic rifles have
been added, the report said.

Forces loyal to the republic’s “interior minister”,
Igor Kornet, teamed up with armed forces from the neighboring Donetsk breakaway
republic on Nov. 22 to take control of the “prosecutor general’s office”, which
is loyal to Plotnitsky, news media reported. More than 20 people were arrested,
including the local “prosecutor general” Vitaliy Podobriy, reported the
novayagazeta.ru news site.

The conflict between Kornet and Plotnitsky involves
Russia’s secret services, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Nov.
22. “These aren’t only local showdowns between gangs,” he said. “They are also
showdowns between the corresponding Russian special services. And this clearly
proves that Russia controls everything there.”

Yet the conflict was described as a “primitive bandit
showdown” by Heorhiy Tuka, the deputy minister of the temporarily occupied
territories. Kornet has confiscated a house for himself, prompting its rightful
owner to demand his eviction. “After Plotnitsky properly threw him out of the
house he confiscated, the so-called internal affairs minister decided to lay
claim to everything he had amassed for himself since 2014,” he said, as
reported by the Ukrinform news agency. “Since they both have a certain amount
of armed fighters at their disposal, there was an attempt at a quasi-takeover.”

Zenon Zawada: The worker’s paradise declared and promoted by the separatist rebels
has proven to be a mirage as the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk
have been plagued by criminal and terrorist activity from within its very own
leadership. Nor has Russia provided the support that they had anticipated, in
terms of financing or even political annexation. This latest conflict hasn’t
affected conditions in the Ukrainian mainland. Instead it serves to reveal how
the separatist project has proven to be a disaster for local residents.