KIEV, November 28. /TASS/. Leader of the Ukrainian Choice - People’s Right movement and member of the Opposition Platform - For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, has said that martial law in Ukraine’s developed industrial regions would handicap the country’s economy further.
"Imposing martial law in these highly developed industrial regions of Ukraine is akin to ‘a shot in the head’ for our country’s economy, and the destruction of its remaining attractiveness and predictability in the eyes of investors. This decision will inevitably lead to a decrease in Ukraine’s GDP, plummeting wages, in addition to triggering an infrastructure and social crisis," Medvedchuk’s was quoted as saying on the Ukrainian Choice’s website.
According to the politician, the population of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Zaporozhye, Chernigov, Kharkov and Kherson regions "consistently opposes the destructive, anti-popular policy pursued by the government, which frees its hands for a crackdown against freedom of speech and independent media, more repression against unwanted political and social forces and a war on dissidents."
Medvedchuk stressed that the martial law initiative by Ukraine’s authorities and the pseudo-opposition forces supporting them could split the country. "Today residents of southeastern Ukraine, the Russian-speaking population and all those who are aware of the need for profound changes to the government’s current foreign policy clearly understand the necessity and expedience of the goal pursued by the Opposition Platform - For Life, that is, the nomination of a single candidate, Yuri Boiko, at the presidential election to protect citizens’ constitutional rights, their lives, property and freedom," he concluded.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, earlier endorsed President Pyotr Poroshenko’s decree on imposing martial law for a period of 30 days from November 28 in the Vinnitsa, Lugansk, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkov, Chernigov, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, as well as in Ukraine’s territorial waters in the Sea of Azov. The pretext for the decision to declare martial law was the recent border violation clash in the Kerch Strait on November 25, when three Ukrainian naval ships breached the current rules of passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The intruding Ukrainian vessels illegally crossed the Russian state border, trespassed into Russian territorial waters and conducted dangerous maneuvers. In defiance of repeated warnings and demands to stop, the Ukrainian ships kept violating the law by continuing their risky maneuvers, which drove the Russian forces to use gunfire in order to compel them to stop. As a result, all three ships were detained. In addition, three Ukrainians injured in the incident were given medical assistance. A criminal case was opened over the violation of the Russian state border. Moscow described the incident as a provocation.