MOSCOW, May 4 /TASS/. The current Kiev authorities are inviable and will not last long, Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of east Ukraine's self-proclaimed Donetsk republic (DPR) said during his live video conference, broadcasted by the local Donetsk News Agency on Wednesday.
"The regime, which is now ruling in Kiev, is inviable, primarily because it is not independent, and also because it rests on distorted ideological principles. Therefore, this regime will be short-lived. Either an economic collapse or a political crisis like the last one will kill it. It’s just a matter of time and it’s going to happen soon," the DPR head stressed.
Talking about a possibility of changing the power in Odessa, Zakharchenko said that power changes were usually provoked by some tragic events involving the death of people.
"A terrible crime committed on the Kulikovo field and the House of Trade Unions in Odessa paralyzed the will of the Odessa residents back in 2014," the DPR head complained. "The crackdown on the Odessa residents was demonstrably ruthless.”
Zakharchenko also said that he missed Odessa and would visit it when the city would become free. "I love Odessa, the Arkadiya and the embankment. I used to come there often. Sometimes, I stayed there for months. It would have been enormous pleasure to be able to visit a free multi-ethnic Russian sea town of Odessa again. But prior to that we, together, should make it free," Zakharchenko stressed.
"Odessa, as well as Donbass and Sloboda Ukraine with Kharkov should determine their own future. Kiev has lost the moral right to make decisions for other regions of Ukraine", he said. Maybe the regions will have to "build Ukraine anew, on another - federative or confederative - basis", Zakharchenko added.
"The regions - with all their historical, cultural and economic peculiarities - should themselves decide whether they want to remain within Ukraine, and if it is so, then they should decide what kind of Ukraine they want. The people should decide this at regional referendums", the DPR head said.
"The first step for the future Ukraine should be cleansing it of the evil that enslaved the country after the Maidan events. I think we should talk about denazification as a minimum. Of course, this should lead to the trial of the criminals, who staged an armed coup d’etat and unleashed a civil war", Zakharchenko said.
- DPR: One civilian killed, three more wounded in shelling by Kiev troops in past week
- Kiev’s desire to rename cities in Donbass reflects its real policy — DPR head
- Donbass militia leader accuses Kiev of attempt on his life
- Donbass security ministry disrupts attempted terrorist act against PM Zakharchenko
- Zakharchenko: Ukraine withdraws from regime of ‘silence’ unilaterally
"Among the global first priority decisions it is necessary to confirm Ukraine’s neutral military status and start trilateral negotiations in the Ukraine-Russia-EU format", he said.
According to him, the resumption of the negotiations is needed to stabilize the situation in the country, "in order to straighten out the tangle into which first Yanukovych (Ukraine’s former president), and then Maidan dragged the country, making it an object of others’ interests and not the subject of its own."
The peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Donbass region is based on the Minsk agreements of the Contact Group of 5 and 20 September, 2014. The group agreed then on the peace settlement plan and a ceasefire.
The southern Ukrainian city of Odessa saw the biggest tragedy in its modern history two years ago, when 48 people were killed in mass disorders on May 2, 2014.
On May 2, 2014, during which soccer fans from other cities, as well as Right Sector militants and so-called "Maidan self-defense" representatives from Kiev organized a march along city streets. Clashes with federalization supporters occurred during the march.
Radicals set ablaze the Trade Unions House, where their opponents hid, and a tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian. The attackers did not let anyone leave the burning Trade Unions House building.
At least 48 people died and 247 were injured in the clashes and the fire in the Trade Unions House.
The authorities conducted an investigation and said 22 people were instigators of the disorders. At the same time, investigators have failed to discover evidence that the Trade Unions House was set on fire deliberately.
The Council of Europe’s International Advisory Panel on November 7, 2015 criticized the investigation conducted by Ukraine’s authorities. The panel in particular discovered human rights violations during the probe.
The Council of Europe’s Director of Human Rights and Special Advisor for Ukraine Christos Giakoumopoulos underscored that Ukraine is in for international condemnation for refusal to investigate murders on Maidan in February 2014 and the May 2, 2014 tragedy in Odessa.