MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The Donbas conflict has claimed 13,000 lives since 2014 and Russia’s current military operation is about to close this history to restore peace to this land, the secretary of the United Russia party’s general council, Andrey Turchak, said on Thursday.
"Eight years ago, on April 14, 2014, Kiev set course towards military suppression of the Russian Spring in the southeast of the country. The first nationalist battalions, consisting mostly of the extremist Maidan activists, arrived there. From that moment on a major bloodshed, a war in Donbass, became inevitable," the United Russia party’s press-service quotes Turchak as saying.
He recalled that over the past eight years the conflict had claimed more than 13,000 lives.
"The Ukrainian politicians often mentioned this figure and blamed it on Russia. At the same time they kept quiet that most of those killed were victims of the nationalist battalions and the Ukrainian army. Including thousands of peaceful residents of Donbass - women, old people and children," he said.
Turchak stressed that "before those fatal events and even later the conflict still had a political solution."
"It was possible to come to terms, but Kiev rejected the very idea of a peace dialogue with those who disagreed with the results of Maidan, those who supported the Russian world. They were labeled terrorists liable to extermination," Turchak said.
"These days we are writing the last page of this history by holding a special military operation. Donbass will be liberated. Peace will be restored to this land at last," Turchak said.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics launched a special military operation in Ukraine. He stressed that Moscow had no plans for an occupation of Ukraine, its sole purpose being demilitarization and denazification of the country. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces were avoiding strikes against Ukrainian cities. Its smart weapons eliminate Ukraine’s military infrastructures.