Spilna Sprava

History

In December 2010, Spilna Sprava tried to implement a national referendum about discontinuing of the electoral mandates of the members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and peaceful removal of President Yanukovich from power, whom Spilna Sprava accused in dictatorial ways of running the country. After referendum was denied, an electronic signature-gathering started. It was claimed by the Spilna Sprava that on 12 April 2011 nearly 250 000 signatures were collected.

In Spring 2011, Spilna Sprava attempted on 14 May 2011 to stage a number of protests across cities in Ukraine culminating with the Indignation Day (Day of Anger) in Kiev - massive demonstrations and rallies at the Presidential Administration and Verkhovna Rada buildings. The anti-government protest in Kiev failed as 300-400 protesters were confronted by nearly 1,500 riot police officers.

In Summer 2011, Spilna Sprava tried to jump-start a new anti-government Maidan in Kiev on 8 August 2011, however, without much effect.

During the 2012 parliamentary elections in Ukraine Spilna Sprava organized an independent monitoring of the pre-election situation and vote casting. It claimed at a press conference on 31 October 2012 after the elections that significant vote fraud was uncovered in Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, and Cherkasy regions of Ukraine.

In 2013, Spilna Sprava along with the major Ukrainian opposition factions staged a number of rallies and demonstrations in Kiev and beyond, including, at Kyiv's Saint Sofia Square on May 18. The rally was dispersed by Berkut riot police. Several Spilna Sprava activists were detained.

The groups leader (coordinator) is Oleksandr Danylyuk, a lawyer, rights activist and a poet, who was earlier involved in campaigns against former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and later Kiev Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyy, as well as in the 2004 Orange Revolution. He describes Spilna Sprava as a "pro-democracy civil movement", and at the same time advocates radical actions for demolishing the corrupted system of power in Ukraine. On 3 February 2014, Danylyuk reportedly arrived in London fleeing from an alleged imminent arrest in Ukraine after an arrest warrant was issued. He later returned to Kiev after the fall of Viktor Yanukovych's administration on February 22, 2014.

Euromaidan

During the anti-government Euromaidan in Ukraine in 2014, the Spilna Sprava formed a radical faction of the Euromaidan protest movement, while acting independently from the Euromaidan leadership. It maintained several tents and recruitment booths at Euromaidan displaying group's distinctive political symbols.

As a direct action-oriented group, Spilna Sprava refused cooperation with the moderate oppositional political actors, accusing them in hidden collaboration with Viktor Yanukovych and secret plans to undermine Maidan. It successfully mobilized across the political spectrum recruiting an unwieldy assortment of political radicals, including common people, rights activists, military veterans (the Afgantsy), soccer hooligans and street toughs, who were eager to spring to action instead of standing at rallies.

Spilna Sprava militants dressed in fatigues, wore ski masks, and brandished bats, stun guns, knives and Molotov cocktails and willingly took part in street fights with the Ukrainian police. The law enforcement was eager to return the favor, for example, on January 31, 2014, the office of public liaison of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported that two armed Spilna Sprava militants were arrested. One, "thirty-year-old Vitaliy came to Kyiv from Poltava region and hoped to make good money on the Maidan. According to him, he immediately joined one of the units on the condition of receiving UAH 200 per day of 'work.' A young man was responsible for guarding the tents and participating in mass events, rallies, etc. He got a 'flintlock' from one of his companions to shoot at police officers who are on duty on Hrushevskoho Street, but says that he has not yet used the weapons." The other, a "45-year-old fellow also actively participated in protests, and, on the side of the members of the Spilna Sprava movement, and even protected the Agriculture Ministry from Svoboda supporters. The man said that he saw many people on the Maidan have various weapons. He received the gun seized from law enforcement officers from the chief of his unit," - all according to the police report.

Spilna Sprava came to international prominence after its members seized in February 2014 several key governmental buildings in Kiev: the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Energy (just for a few hours on 25 January, purportedly just to show that it could take control of any government office building if it wanted) during the Euromaidan protests.

Activists from Spilna Sprava also stormed and seized the five storey international convention center in Kiev, the so-called «Ukrainian House», where a large detachment of the Ukrainian Interior Troops, mostly inexperienced conscripts, had been stationed. Spilna Sprava militants threatened them with Molotov cocktails: "The younger guys wanted to flood the floor with gasoline and burn [the troops] alive," - said Oleksiy Tsibko, who participated in the operation, in an interview. But after a tense standoff lasting several hours, the protesters formed a corridor and let the internal troops out. The whole building was afterwards turned into Euromaidan "fortress", with mess-hall, hospital, sleeping quarters, and a club house. Tsibko added that the Afgantsy were ready to use firearms as, "the battle is already underway. And if [police] fire so much as one live round into one of our guys, we have enough to respond in kind. Believe me, it won’t just be a couple of hundred who lay down dead when its over".

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine stated that it had voluntarily removed its police force instead of risking a bloody confrontation with rioting members from the Spilna Sprava. On several occasions, Spilna Sprava clashed with the Self-defense forces of the Euromaidan, which tried to rein them in and forcibly evicted from several locations.

Criticism

Spilna Sprava was accused by the Ukrainian opposition leaders of sowing and reaping the seeds of discord inside the protest movement, and in staging "provocations" that could have undermined the ongoing talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Azarov's Government. Indeed, attacks on government offices could have served as a pretext for imposing a martial law in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Justice Minister Olena Lukash delivered a televised address, arguing for the introduction of martial law in the country after the Ministry of Justice seizure. European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle warned about dangers of radicalization of the peaceful protest movement of Euromaidan, and Vitali Klitschko, the UDAR Party leader, personally came to the Justice Ministry and asked Spilna Sprava activists to retreat from the building but they instead called him names and turned him down. On the other hand, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Eduard Stavytsky was able to negotiate an end to the seizure of the ministry's building by Spilna Sprava militants, arguing that its continuation may disrupt the work of the ministry, including the oversight of Ukraine's nuclear power stations.

During the Euromaidan, relations between Spilna Sprava and Ukrainian nationalist Svoboda party were especially tense and mistrustful as Svoboda's activists threatened Spilna Sprava's militants with stun guns while forcing them out of the Ministry of Agriculture. Reportedly six activists from Spilna Sprava were injured. Tensions between two factions started at the beginning of the Euromaidan during the police siege of the seized by protesters Kiev City Hall on December 11, 2013. When Spilna Sprava activists left the building to confront the riot police in the street, they were locked out by Svoboda militants and later accused of running away from the fight. To add salt to the injury, both riot policemen and Spilna Sprava activists were sprayed in a chilling December wind from a fire hose out of the second-floor window. The relationship did not improve much after the victory of Euromaidan and removal of Viktor Yanukovych from power, for example, on 29 April 2014, "Self-defense of the Maidan", which was mainly controlled by Svoboda, tried to disperse a torch rally procession in Kiev staged by the Spilna Sprava and the Patriot of Ukraine in commemoration of the Euromaidan fallen heroes; a massive fist fight near Maidan Nezalezhnosti flared up.