The Ukrainian Far-Right—And the Danger It Poses

The Nation

It should be a priority for the incoming Donald Trump administration to reexamine America’s role in the Ukraine crisis.  Over the past year, Washington has focused solely on Kiev’s failure to tackle Ukraine’s endemic corruption, while ignoring another fundamental obstacle to Ukraine’s democracy:  the country’s far-right forces. 

In Ukraine today, power is split between Kiev and heavily-armed ultranationalist battalions, which have a long record of not only clashing with Kiev but also defying the will of the EU and Washington.    

The ultranationalists’ influence via a policy of veto-through-violehttps://www.thenation.com/article/the-ukrainian-far-right-and-the-danger-it-poses/nce is best exemplified by their continued derailment of the Minsk Accords:  the agreement for settling the conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.  Minsk is also the key to lifting the anti-Russian sanctions which are hurting European economies and fomenting resentment in countries like France and Italy.  It’s no surprise that Washington, Paris, Berlin, and the UN have repeatedly stressed that Minsk remains the only solution to the Ukraine conflict.  For Ukraine’s far right, however, the accords—which require Kiev to grant Donbass special status, including the right to use the Russian language—are anathema.  Accordingly, whenever the West nudges Ukraine to fulfill its Minsk obligations, the far right steps in, often with violence.   

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