Avakov calls National Guard to get ready for Donbass “de-occupation”

The Ukrainian National Guard must take under control the situation in Donbass territories uncontrolled by the Ukrainian government under the “peaceful de-occupation plan,” the country’s interior minister Arsen Avakov has said during a meeting of the National Guard Military Council.

“The Guard, like other security institutions, will always be out of politics. Its task is to guard rights and freedoms of the people, secure public order, and prevent from illegal actions. They also must be ready to take under control the situation in the temporarily occupied territories within frameworks of the peaceful de-occupation plan,” the Interior Ministry communications department quotes Avakov as saying.

The Ukrainian authorities started speaking of the “Donbass de-occupation plan” as early as in 2016. In particular, then-minister for uncontrolled territories Georgiy Tuka announced that the plan envisaged resuming trade relations with the territories.

At today’s press conference in Moscow, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian nationalistic battalions will start massacre in Donbass like in Srebrenica, if Donbass militia does not resist them.