LUHANSK, December 5. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) will never get back to Ukraine’s jurisdiction, the Novorossia press center quoted speaker of the LPR People’s Council (parliament) Alexey Karyakin as saying on Friday.
The speaker commented on the statement French President Francois Hollande made in Astana that Ukraine’s eastern regions should be given “certain autonomy” in a bid to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“Ukraine might have preserved its integrity and it might have remained within its borders if it accepted our proposals we put forth as far back as in April,” Karyakin said. “Now, Ukraine wants to do what we suggested in April. But what for then so many people have died, so many houses and infrastructure facilities have been destroyed, so many kindergartens and schools have been ruined? After all these things, the policy of reunification with Ukraine into one single entity is absolutely unacceptable for the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. We will never be united anymore, under whatever circumstances — there is Ukraine and there are these republics. The Kiev authorities simply must admit the fact that that they have cut off this part of the country with their own hands.”
“If Ukraine observed the Minsk agreements, especially in what concerns ceasefire and withdrawal of troops, everything might have been much better now: we might have restored many facilities and taken a number of steps to settle the conflict. But Ukraine continues to conduct combat operations, continues to send us not very pleasing 'gifts' embodied in shells and missiles,” Karyakin said.
He stressed that his republic still considered the Minsk protocol valid and urged Ukraine “to admit its mistakes and get back to the track of strict observance of the agreements.”