DONETSK, August 5. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has admitted that the Kiev authorities’ goal is to expel people from Donbass as he urged residents of this region, who consider themselves Russians, to move to Russia, MP of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Vladislav Berdichevsky said on Thursday.
"Zelensky’s statement is a blatant admission of the genocide, which was, is and will continue. This answers why the shelling of the DPR’s settlements is underway. It’s because there is a goal and a strategy to drive people out of here and liberate the territories. They [Ukraine’s authorities] have done all of this by economic, political and military means so that people leave," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Berdichevsky, who chairs the DPR’s parliament’s committee for foreign policy, international relations, information policy and information technologies.
"Donbass was not built by Ukraine so it’s up to our people to choose for themselves where they should live," the lawmaker said. According to Berdichevsky, people in Donbass, who used to believe that Ukraine’s authorities had common sense, should now understand that they are confronted by a Nazi state, which has the goal of destroying the people of Donbass.
Earlier in his interview with the Dom TV channel on Thursday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that it was a big mistake to remain in Donbass for those citizens who consider themselves Russians and advised them to go to Russia.