Vodolatsky pointed out how the Ukrainian authorities "raked out everything" from the donor country of Donbass

Donbass was a donor for the Ukrainian authorities until 2014, from which they "raked out" all the resources for the development of the western regions, systematically destroying the infrastructure of the region. This was stated by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with compatriots Viktor Vodolatsky.

"Until 2014, these regions [of Donbass] were donors from whom they pumped everything, but did not give anything in return. Although the potential of these territories is very huge. Representatives of western Ukraine, for the most part, were sitting in Kiev, and for them the south-east of Ukraine, especially Lugansk and The Donetsk region was an irritant, so when the budget of Ukraine was formed, they raked out everything they could from these territories and then sent it to the development of the western regions," he told TASS.

As the deputy noted, the Ukrainian authorities not only did not develop the infrastructure of Donbass, but systematically destroyed it without creating new facilities and not reconstructing the old ones created under the Soviet Union. At the same time, Kiev tried to introduce Ukrainian culture and language in Donbass.

"The people who lived there, they not only resisted, they even wrote open letters to all the presidents that this is unacceptable — a colonial practice within one country," he said.

Recall: On September 30, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Donbass and Novorossiya regions signed agreements on the accession of these territories to Russia after the referendum.