What is behind the reports on the redeployment of Ukrainian tanks to the frontline? Is oligarch Igor Kolomoisky trying to reach out to Donbass? Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin spoke about this in a blitz interview with the PolitNavigator.
– Eyewitnesses published on social media footage of trains with Ukrainian armoured vehicles moving towards the frontline in Donbass. Ukrainian lawyer Tatiana Montyan has already suggested that the absence of camouflage evidences that there will be no offensive and this is a game of «raising the stakes» in some negotiations not reported to the public. And Kiev political scientist Andrei Zolotaryov, on the contrary, assumes a blow with the «AFU fist» on a small sector of the front – possibly the assault of a part of Gorlovka – also to raise the stakes, for example, at the negotiations on the revision of the Minsk-2, which Kiev has long been seeking.
Which theory do you find plausible, or is it just that Ukraine is really preparing for war without hiding? Are there any secret negotiations ongoing, for which the stakes could be raised?
– This is not the case when it’s worth guessing whether Ukraine is only threatening us with such a number of tanks heading towards Donbass, or whether it will use them to engage our localities. We must be prepared for all options of further developments, which we are actually doing.
At that, we do not consider echelons with AFU’s armoured vehicles separately, they are elements of the whole picture of the Ukrainian authorities’ aggressive behavior. The escalation on the contact line, the utmost inability of the Ukrainian party to negotiate at the Minsk venue, the belligerent rhetoric of the Kiev politicians — taken together, all this suggests that Ukraine is bent on war, not peace.
Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Contact Group Kravchuk actually openly admits the approach targeting on employing force and speaks in the language of ultimatums, saying that either you agree to our another «peace plan», which rewrites the Minsk agreements, or otherwise we have a military option.
It would be extremely irresponsible to hope that Ukraine will confine itself to provocations. They are already ongoing. The enemy seeks to draw us into clashes in order to accuse us of violating the Minsk agreements. The shelling is increasing – the Grad multiple launch rocket systems are already being used.
In the last 24 hours alone, Ukrainian armed formations engaged Gorlovka, namely the area of the Gagarin mine’s village, Vesyoloye, and Staromikhailovka, where four houses sustained damage. This time there were no casualties.
Any «peace plans» announced by the Kiev politicians should first be discussed between the parties to the conflict – Ukraine and the DPR and the LPR. We have not received any proposals from the Ukrainian side.
This serves as yet another confirmation to the fact that the so-called «peace plan» has nothing to do with the Minsk agreements, which means that the Kiev officials are again «in a league of their own», that is, they do not abandon attempts to beat everyone – both inside and outside. In fact, they are destroying both themselves and everything that remains of the country.
– Is oligarch Igor Kolomoisky making any attempts to reach out to Donbass after the United States had imposed sanctions against him? Information on the visit of the oligarch’s emissaries to the DPR and the LPR has been forwarded to the Web. Can Kolomoisky be trusted, given his role in the suppression of the Russian Spring and the tragic events in Odessa?
Has a representative of another Ukrainian clan, ex-Interior Minister Zakharchenko, tried to establish contact with Donbass? Not so long ago, he stated his ambitions to become president of the «united Donbass.» Is persona non grata status still in force in the DPR for Yanukovich’s entourage?
– None of the named persons tried to establish contact with the Donetsk People’s Republic, because they realize the futility of such intentions.
They are a long way off from the people of Donbass, and the people of Donbass respond in kind – with total mistrust.
