MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) head Alexander Zakharchenko on Wednesday accused Ukraine of making a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on DPR websites.
"Today an attempt was made to destabilize the work of state information organs - the Donetsk news agency and the official website of the Council of Ministers and the People’s Council of the DPR," Zakharchenko said in a statement obtained by TASS.
"The sites came under an unprecedented DDoS attack, which led to a continuous disruption in their operation. This is regular proof of the so-called ‘peacefulness’ and ‘aspiration for constructive dialogue’ on the part of Ukrainian aggressors, who in impotent rage have decided to start an information war," he said.
Zakharchenko said "Kiev does not need truth, it can’t allow Ukrainian residents to get independent and fair information on what is going on in Donbass."
"The Ukrainian government does not want ordinary Ukrainians to learn of incessant violation of the truce on the part of Ukraine’s armed forces, of looting on the part of the National Guard battalions on our soil, of the true losses on the part of Kiev’s troops," he said.
"They don’t need truth, they need war, even if it’s a cyberwar. But, just as on the fronts of our republic, victory will be ours on the information front as well. People will know the truth about what is really going on in Donbass, and no one will prevent them from knowing it," Zakharchenko said.
Developments in east Ukraine
Regular talks of the participants of the Trilateral Contact Group on east Ukrainian settlement comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 10-12. Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) leaders also discussed the Ukrainian issue in Minsk then.
A 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September Minsk agreements was adopted at those talks.
The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of a special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April 2014, to regain control over parts of the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics, have left thousands dead and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict mediated by the OSCE agreed on a ceasefire at talks on September 5, 2014 in Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine. The ceasefire has reportedly been numerously violated since.
Ukraine’s parliament on September 16, 2014 adopted the law on a special self-rule status for certain districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions for three years. The law took effect October 18, 2014 but was then repealed by Kiev.
The Trilateral Contact Group adopted a memorandum on September 19, 2014 in Minsk. The document outlined the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5, 2014.
The nine-point memorandum in particular envisioned a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibers of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.
The Contact Group’s meetings in late December 2014 and on January 31, 2015 did not bring major results and the Group had to meet again in February 2015.