Bombings Linked to Right Wing Groups Target Police in Ukraine

A number of bombs exploded in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv as the government struggles to contain the various militias and armed groups it has also enrolled in its battle against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Reuters reports the attacks were directed at two police stations and left two officers wounded. The government said the stations' entrances had been rigged with explosives and the pin to a grenade had been found at one of the scenes.  The location of the bombings is intriguing because Lviv is a center of pro-Ukrainian sentiment and its people were instrumental in the revolution that overthrew former president Viktor Yanukovich  and eventually sparked the civil war.

The government also wasted no time in linking the explosions to a recent stand-off and shooting between far-right groups and the police that took place in a small town, while it is also asking anyone with information about the bombings to come forward.

Members of Right Sector, a Ukrainian nationalist group, clashed with police in the town of Mukacheve over the weekend. The Guardian reports that the violence in Mukacheve occurred after Ukrainian police blockade a Right Sector base in the town, which was part of a wider crackdown on the group. The Mukacheve clashes involved machine guns and grenades and left at least two people dead.

Some observers and members of the government feel as though the far-right groups, while also fighting against the pro-Russian rebels, are a threat to the central Ukrainian government.

Some of these groups are avowedly neo-Nazi and have been accused by human rights groups of committing a number of abuses.

So far, the civil war in Ukraine has claimed more than 6,000 lives, forced tens of thousands from their homes, and crippled the economy.