MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Volunteers joining militia forces in east Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic will get guarantees that their jobs and salaries will be preserved, the republic’s leader, Igor Plotnitsky, said on Monday.
"We already have many volunteers. They don't need to worry. They will have all social guarantees," the Luhansk Information Center news agency quoted Plotnitsky as saying. "There is a clear understanding what a volunteer means," he said, adding that those voluntarily joining local militia fighting against Kiev’s troops would have their jobs and salaries preserved for the period of service.
Authorities in the republic already have experience of returning volunteers to their previous workplaces, Plotnitsky said, recalling that people who left their jobs during the summer mobilization campaign were reemployed and paid salaries.
The leader emphasized once again that mobilization in Ukraine’s east is conducted on a voluntary basis. "We have a volunteer army, and we will try to maintain this principle to the end," he said.
A new wave of mobilization started on Monday in east Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic as it was earlier ordered by the republic’s leader, Alexander Zakharchenko.
"Yes, we have in fact started mobilization," local defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said Monday.
The number of volunteers wishing to join the republic’s militia forces remains unknown, but Zakharchenko earlier said he hoped to beef up the forces with six new brigades.