Ukraine Communists recruited and aided separatists, SBU reports

Local Communist Party leaders in the Luhansk Oblast have organized the illegal supply of weapons to separatists, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on June 18, citing testimony from captured separatists. Two fighters from the town of Lutuhino said they were recruited for armed combat by the directors of regional Communist Party offices. These directors also organized the delivery of rifles to battlegrounds.

Parliamentary Head Oleksandr Turchynov ordered on June 18 the rules committee to investigate the legal status of the parliamentary faction of the Communist Party of Ukraine and to produce a recommendation on whether to dissolve it. In order for a political party to form a faction, the rules require that it consist of those parties that earned at least 5 percent of the closed list vote, and at least one MP elected to a single-winner, single-mandate district. The single Communist elected by a district, Oksana Kaletnik, recently announced her resignation from the party.

Zenon Zawada: The wheels have been set in motion for parliament to dissolve the Communist Party faction, as the legal grounds are entirely in place. In early elections, we doubt the Communist Party, or any radical pro-Russian force, will earn enough votes to qualify. It’s possible the Party of Regions will regroup and surpass the 5 percent barrier. But it’s clear that pro-Russian forces will be a minority in the next parliament, which is all the more reason for the Russian government to accelerate its military aggression in Ukraine.