DONETSK, December 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s pledges to ensure heat and electricity supplies to eastern Ukraine are “meant for foreign consumers,” and have nothing to do with the actual steps taken by Kiev, speaker of the People’s Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Andrei Purgin said on Sunday.
“This statement is meant for foreign consumers. It was said for those who are not here, who are not in Ukraine and have a poor idea of what is going on here,” he told the Donetsk News Agency. “As a matter of fact, the Kiev authorities have literally robbed the DPR by cutting off its banking system, by trying to break the healthcare system, by freezing the money of cities and enterprises, by stealing the money from pensioners, by hampering access to bank deposits.”
Earlier on Sunday, Poroshenko ordered heads of law enforcement authorities to work on supplies of heat and electricity to the people living in Donbass.
In compliance with the presidential decree of November 15, 2014, Ukraine’s government stopped the operation of state companies and organizations in certain territories in the Donetsk andLuhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. The country’s National Bank was ordered to stop serving bank accounts in these territories. The decree also provides for a “special procedure” of energy supplies to Donbass.
Authorities of self-proclaimedLuhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics called Poroshenko’s order “an act of genocide and robbing the people.”.