I cannot leave today’s video with Yevgeny Prigozhin, if it is not a fake, of course, without the comment. We have deep respect to the feats committed by the fighters of the PMC “Wagner”. We express our sincere gratitude to the company for contribution to the liberation of the Donetsk People’s Republic. But we have a right to corresponding respect for the people of Donbass. These emotional statements by Mr Prigozhin, in which we can see that significance of events preceding the beginning of the special military operation is understated, devalue sufferings of our people.
I’d like to remind that by the time the SMO starts, only in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic 4,362 civilians, including 91 children, were killed by the Ukrainian projectiles. 7,819 more people, including 453 children, sustained injuries. 27 children became disabled.
Ukraine intentionally disrupted the Minsk process. Any of the points of the Minsk agreements was not fulfilled through its fault. At the same time, the west was pumping consistently Ukraine with weapons. It was clear that the weapons came to Ukraine not to be a part of museum exhibitions. Moreover, today Minsk agreements signatories, namely the former president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the ex-chancellor of the Germany Angela Merkel and the former president of France François Hollande frankly admit that the Minsk was necessary for the West only to military build-up.
Only a few days before the announcement of mass evacuation in Donbass, in violation of the agreements on ceasefire, the Ukrainian armed formations fired at the territory of the DPR almost a hundred projectiles banned by the Minsk agreements. Therefore, it is not right, to put it mildly, to underestimate the threat to both Donbass and Russia.
Once again on behalf of residents of Donbass I thank the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin for the decision to launch the special operation. It was tough, but it helped to save the millions of innocent lives. And I call on all to remember about the role of patriotism in the history of our state both on the battlefield and in the information space.
