Dear residents of Ukraine! I am recording this video message for you because of two occasions.
I am happy about the first one: today we presented in Donetsk the Humanitarian Program on the reunification of the people of Donbass and the support of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. As part of this program, we intend to help you, the people of Ukraine – all those who think and speak Russian since childhood. For those who value our common past, and love our great Russian culture, literature, music, poetry, history and who is not going to put up with violent Ukrainization.
We want to support you in the most relevant and important areas – in medicine, education, social assistance to those who need it most. We want to help veterans of the Great Patriotic War, teachers of the Russian language, literature, history, all those who unjustly and illegally suffered from discrimination on the basis of language and from oppression by the authorities just for designating of the involvement in the Russian world.
We consider it is absolutely necessary, within the framework of our capabilities, to support you in the tough situation in which you find yourself.
The second reason for my appeal to you is much less life-affirming. I want to sympathize with you with all my heart. Because you live in a country, the authorities of which are responsible for the political chaos, for the socio-economic crisis, for the gigantic level of corruption, the horrific unemployment rate, and recently also the catastrophic situation in the healthcare system.
You have to survive in a state where leaders are accustomed to blaming anyone for all troubles, just not to admit their own guilt, their own mistakes and miscalculations. And what is absolutely cynical that the authorities of Ukraine have entered tightly and cannot get out of the image of a kind of innocent lamb, which was attacked by a mythical aggressor. This, of course, is a convenient role that allows asking help from Western “partners” with sad faces, and it is much easier to evade responsibility for the created chaos.
But we here in Donbass know perfectly well that the image of a helpless victim of circumstances, carefully guarded by Ukraine, is worth nothing. While in high Kiev offices, officials of various levels are broadcasting about “occupation” and “aggression”, the armed formations of this state are shelling our territories, killing our unarmed civilians – old people and children. And, alas, the Ukrainian authorities hypocritically ignore these crimes they have committed, neither with a word, nor with condolences in their lengthy statements to the media.
At the same time, Ukrainian leaders tell the whole world about their alleged adherence to the Minsk Agreements, although in reality they have not fulfilled a single point of them. For seven years, Kiev has not bothered to listen to us, and this is the root cause of the conflict – in 2014, during a coup d’état, people who came to power, instead of listening to the opinion of Donbass, called us terrorists and unleashed a war against us.
Therefore, now I am addressing personally to the Ukrainian president. I urge you, Mr. Zelensky, not to invite the leaders of third countries to the Contact line, but rather to go there yourself for an honest and open conversation with us. We, together with the Head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Ivanovich, are ready to meet you there personally and communicate in detail and professionally about the situation and the ways of its peaceful settlement.
Only this time I suggest you not to hide in the bushes on the second line of defence, but take courage and get to the hottest spots, namely to the area of the villages of Staromikhaylovka, Opytnoe, Veseloe, Zaitsevo and Aleksandrovka. Come there, see with your own eyes what your troops have done, I don’t know if they are under your control or not.
We, people who have fully felt the consequences of your “peace-loving” presidency, will give you the opportunity not only to pontificate, but to see with your own eyes that it is really impossible to bring “peace in tanks”, aircraft, artillery and any other army installations. Nevertheless, we still remain committed to the Minsk agreements and demand their implementation by Kiev.
However, if you still do not have the courage to visit the Contact line in person, Leonid Ivanovich and I are ready for online debates with you, public debates. So that the entire world community has the opportunity to see and hear who is putting forward real peace proposals, and who is simply creating a hype, but in fact is completely uninterested in a peaceful settlement.
I emphasize: we are fed up with your monologues, we demand a dialogue. We demand to be heard, to finally stop the shelling and start talking to us about how we will continue to coexist with each other.
I also inform you: in the Package of Measures, which was approved by the Security Council resolution, it is clearly indicated that the parties of the conflict are Kiev and Donbass. Accordingly, if you continue look for other interlocutors or call on the leaders of third countries to resolve the conflict, then we qualify this exclusively as a way out of the Minsk process. In this case, have the courage to state it officially.
Denis Pushilin,
