Dear countrymen, I congratulate you on National Unity Day! This holiday testifies to our commitment to inviolable values: loyalty to the Motherland and historical heritage, responsibility to future generations.
Representatives of more than 100 nationalities of Donbass are united by the choice we made in 2014 to live the same fate with Russia, preserve our cultural identity, religious confessions, traditions and customs. Our ties grow stronger every day: at the moment, 170 759 residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic have acquired citizenship of the Russian Federation.
Today’s holiday has a special meaning. National Unity Day encourages us to remember the past and think about the future at the same time.
Today, just as four centuries ago, Russia’s unfriends still dream of putting the Russian peoples against each other, alienating and weakening them on the basis of nationality and faith. During this time, the methods of warfare have radically changed, but the West’s main efforts are still aimed at separating the Russian world to sow another unrest.
Donbass is in the crosshairs of those intentions too. The People’s Militia stopped the hot phase of the fighting in our territory a few years ago, but the information warfare has not stopped for a moment, they wage this war by the meanest methods.
Now, like in 2014, the fate of Donbass is still being decided. Yes, our mining region is undergoing difficult trials, but this is the price we pay for our conscious choice. For our aspiration to unity with the country that supported us in the hardest times of war travails.
We have withstood the war. We managed to survive all the blockades. And even being formally separated from other entities of the Russian Federation, we have returned to our historical roots and, in fact, we already live in the friendly family of Russian peoples.
National unity is a fundamental principle underlying the development of the huge multinational state with which we bind our destiny. But the unity of the peoples means being side by side with each other. And it is manifested not only at the level of love and respect for the Fatherland. It is expressed in the simplest things of our daily life, at the level of ordinary human relations, in mutual respect, understanding, mutual assistance and togetherness.
We create history, each in their respective places. The future of Donbass depends on the unity of efforts of the residents of the Republic.
I would like to express my gratitude to all citizens who lead the Republic to prosperity through concrete actions and deeds and remain loyal to the ideals of peace, justice and good.
Dear compatriots, may the love for our Big Homeland always fill us with invincible strength of spirit! Happy holidays!
Denis Pushilin
Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic
