Russia responsible for violence at Ukraine parliament, president says

The Russian government bears responsibility for the death of three National Guardsmen from a grenade explosion outside Ukraine’s parliament on Aug. 31, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told a Sept. 3 interview with Sky News. He accused Russia of spreading a “campaign of destabilization” in Ukraine that led to the violence. Recently, Russia’s foreign policy towards Ukraine has had an unpredictable nature, he said, which threatens not only Ukraine, but European and global security. Russia started “a hybrid war” that employs secret operators to ignite instability, he said.

Nine suspects have been arrested as of Sept. 2 for their involvement in the violent protests on Aug. 31 outside Ukraine’s parliament building, in which three National Guardsmen died and about 140 were injured, reported the Interior Ministry. Among those arrested was Ihor Humeniuk, 24, a Donbas war veteran and activist with the Svoboda (Freedom) nationalist party who is accused of throwing a live grenade at the officers. He faces charges of murder, attempted murder and committing a terrorist act, which may be punished by life imprisonment.

Zenon Zawada: It’s amusing to see the list of all those accused of the violence on Aug. 31. But direct responsibility lies on the person who threw the deadly grenade, believed to be Humeniuk, and the Svoboda party activists, who brought with them clubs and threw smoke bombs, sound grenades and simple explosives at the National Guardsmen.

The conspiracy theory has floated in Ukraine for years that the Svoboda party is a Kremlin-financed political party, which is what Poroshenko could be implying when implicating the Russian government in the events of Aug. 31. And certainly, ample evidence has surfaced that the Russian government has backed a campaign of sabotage and terrorism in Ukraine, beyond the Donbas region. But the culprits in the Aug. 31 seem to be well-meaning but misguided nationalists, perhaps pawns in a bigger game. But the culprits are not Russian saboteurs.

It’s a widely shared notion that the president himself is indirectly responsible for the violence on Aug. 31 because he failed to take into account the concerns of those opposed to the constitutional amendments, particularly the controversial specific order for the occupied territories of Donbas. Certainly, the rift that has emerged between the business-oriented pro-EU establishment and the nationalists and radicals has the potential to undermine Ukraine’s pro-Western government. The president has no choice but to reach some compromise with the populist forces in order to avoid escalating violence.