WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine’s prime minister pushed back against a pair of forces threatening to undermine his fragile government, likening members of Ukraine’s parliament to “lunatics” while defending a nationalist militia that is locked in a standoff with police.

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As Yatsenyuk pushed for more U.S. investment, security forces in western Ukraine were locked in conflict with the nationalist Right Sector militia, which has accused local police of smuggling contraband across the border with Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. On Saturday, the group launched a deadly gun-and-grenade attack on police, sparking an ongiong standoff, and on Monday the group briefly took a 6-year-old boy hostage.

But the prime minister, in his remarks to the AP, appeared to echo the group’s accusations against police, while also denouncing violations of the law by any of the parties.