Kravchuk: We must isolate Donbass from Ukraine

Ukraine must fully isolate Donbass and stop any relationships with it, the first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk said in an interview to Novoye Vremya magazine (Ukraine).

“We must cut this territory off until we are able to liberate it,” Kravchuk said. “We must stop any economic, political and other relations with them.”

He said Kiev must put up with the current delimitation line in Donbass and stop any efforts to care for the population. “We accept this line as status quo, as a temporary dividing line and stop idle talks like ‘humanism,’ ‘our people live there,’ ‘we must help them,’ ‘we must collect taxes here and help them, because they need it,’” the ex-president said.  He is sure that Kiev must not take back the lost territories of Donbass right now. “It is not time to liberate it so far. We will do it, when it is time,” Kravchuk said.

Kravchuk criticized the Minsk Agreements acknowledging that Kiev does not implement them. “After the Minsk Agreements, we lost part of the territories, we have been humiliated. Therefore, on the line of contact we are deploying weapons and troops we consider necessary, despite the Minsk Agreements.”

EADaily reported that earlier President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and Ukrainian MPs called for full transport blockade of Donbass.

At the same time, Kiev is preparing a large-scale offensive. Shelling at the territory of the republics and killing civilians, the Armed Forces of Ukraine pull more and more weaponry and troops to the conflict zone.

“Ukraine is ready to start the offensive. At the moment, there are about 82 battalion and tactical groups comprising nearly 65,000 people,” said Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic. “The frontline subdivisions are ready for the offensive and no peace should be expected. The Minsk Agreements have been undermined.”

Eduard Basurin, the deputy defense minister of DPR said Ukrainian Armed Forces command pulled three main attack groups at the line of engagement. The Ukrainian forces have 435 tanks, 132 missile systems, and 830 pieces of artillery and rocket-launchers. The DPR intelligence exposed 47 new pieces of military equipment on the frontline as well as electronic warfare stations.  In addition, a set of cars with tanks have arrived at Volnovakha and Khlebodarovka train stations.