Extremists make little headway in west Ukraine

By Alexander Tkachenko

LVOV, Ukraine (Reuter): Self-styled "Patriots" set the political tone in fiercely nationalist western Ukraine, but moderates look like keeping the edge over hardline extremists in the race to enter Ukraine's new parliament.

During an otherwise colorless campaign, uniformed members of the Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) paraded through the city center urging voters to back them to safeguard Ukraine's national interests.

Their black-shirted rivals of the Social National Party, sporting a swastika-like symbol, also drew substantial crowds in an area hit especially badly by post-Soviet economic crisis.

In the end, UNA won one of seven seats declared in the first round. The others went to two moderate nationalist groups.

Communists, who hold a big lead in industrial eastern Ukraine managed to get only one candidate through to the second round in the area's 23 constituencies.

"Our main difference with democrats is in our way of thinking," said Oleh Vitovych, head of UNA's military wing and one of three extremists to make it to the second round of voting scheduled to take place yesterday.

"It is like comparing people who wallow in the mud like pigs and others who stand up like Cossacks (warriors)."

Western Ukraine, only incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939, has always been the epicenter of rightwing Ukrainian nationalism and anti-Russian feelings are strong.

Unlike the moderate pro-western nationalists who were prominent in the outgoing parliament in Kiev, some of the radicals espouse openly fascist, anti-democratic traditions with roots in the 1930s.

Since the collapse of Soviet power, local movements have led fund-raising campaigns to support Ukraine's navy. Busloads of westerners traveled to the pro-Russian east to organize lectures and concerts on Ukrainian statehood and culture.

Moderate nationalists, who appeared on the run during the campaign, have regained their composure in Lvov, dotted by Baroque buildings from the area's 150 years under Austro- Hungarian rule.

"We established our movement as a bulwark against radicals," said Taras Stetskiv, one of the leaders of the New Wave movement who faces a radical in Sunday's run-off. "We bring together professionals and moderates."

His opponent, Irina Kalynets, has earned notoriety as a rugged campaigner.

She recently lost a court case against the author of a sex education book she accused of indecency. Last year, she jeered the chairman of Israel's parliament in public over the case of Ivan Demjanjuk, since acquitted on charges of Nazi atrocities.

"Ukraine can only be saved by radical nationalism," she told Reuters. "If there is no mention of God and Ukraine in your slogan, then you have a recipe for social conflict."

Kalynets is a longshot in the run-off. But Vitovych could well become the second UNA member in the 450-seat parliament.

His movement stands for a Soviet-style command economy, dominated by the military-industrial complex.

To defend national interests, UNA's military wing sent hundreds of mercenaries to help Georgia fight separatists in Abkhazia but also to back Slav insurgents in Moldova.

"I am a military man. If we have to, we will comply with orders of our leadership to defend Ukraine with arms," he said.

The extremists have strong, high-profile backing from Stepan Khmara, the sole defender of radical nationalist causes in the outgoing parliament. Khmara, a former political prisoner who advocates Ukraine hanging on to former Soviet nuclear weapons, was re-elected easily in the first round.

Khmara is treated as a hero at rallies for extremist candidates, applauded by crowds made desperate by deprivation.

"I am for Khmara. I am fed up with living in squalor," rasped pensioner Les Ivanchuk.

The extremists sense that successes on Sunday will be few and are setting their sights on future tasks -- mainly local elections later this year.

"This is our first campaign and the idea is to publicize our name," Yuri Krivoruchko, leader of the black-shirted Social Nationalists. "We shall be the winners in the local elections."

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