Ukraine's far right pressures the government to hold snap referendum and scrap peace deal

Calling for a no-confidence vote in the national government, the nationalist organization Right Sector gathered several thousand people in Maidan Square in Kiev, calling it a “people’s assembly.”

The Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda estimates that 1,000-4,000 people attended, while 112 Ukraina, a television station, reported that there were as many as 6,000 people. Kiev's police say the rally was peaceful.

Earlier, Right Sector held an emergency meeting and demanded a no-confidence referendum on the Ukrainian government, the president, and Ukrainian parliament. Right Sector also demands that the government abandon the Minsk peace agreement and legalize volunteer battalions fighting against the separatists.

Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh vows to establish a “central people’s electoral committee” in order to hold a plebiscite, if the government refuses to hold the referendum. He also threatened to organize acts of mass civil disobedience.

Right Sector held its emergency meeting following a gunfight between members of the organization and the police. The incident took place in the town of Mukacheve in Ukraine’s otherwise peaceful southwest Zakarpattya region, about 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) from the war front in the east. According to various sources, 3-5 people died in the shootout.

The District Attorney’s Office has launched a terrorism investigation into the incident. Right Sector is suspected of involvement in organized crime, and on June 21 at least 13 members of the group were reportedly implicated in a banditry investigation.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the conflict in Mukacheve is likely related to smuggling. Poroshenko also stated that not a single political organization in Ukraine “will have any militarized wing.”

For more on the conflict in Mukacheve, see ‘No one’s planning to disarm’—Heavily armed Ukrainian nationalists face off police in bloody gunfight

For a look into the armed volunteer groups fighting in Ukraine against the separatists, see Looting, torture, and big business—A look at volunteer groups fighting the separatists in Ukraine