Donetsk, Sep 11 - DAN. Kiev might have planned in advance to derail the inspection by representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Ukraine at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination in the Shumy settlement area outside Gorlovka in order to increase the rating of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky among nationalists, DPR People’s Militia deputy commander Eduard Basurin said on Friday following detailed analysis of the events.

“It follows from the analysis that the derailing of the joint inspection in the Shumy settlement area by Ukraine on September 10 was a planned action, aimed at increasing Zelensky’s rating and wooing nationalists,” Basurin said.

It is proven by Ukraine's quick consent to the Shumy inspection and the groups of “Right Sector” and “Freedom” nationalists, hired and trained in advance in Kharkov, who rallied in immediate proximity to the contact line despite the ban. Also, journalists from mainstream Ukrainian television channels “happened” to be near the rally, covering the event in a live broadcast, while Joint Forces Operation deputy commander Bogdan Bondar, who decided to talk with the “people,” supported the rally’s opinion that it was inadmissible to let our Republic’s representatives inspect Ukrainian positions, even within the framework of the coordination mechanism,” he said.

Reports on Thursday said that Kiev derailed the joint inspection with the DPR in the Shumy area outside Gorlovka.

The DPR authorities planned an operation  to eliminate  Ukrainian army fortifications outside Gorlovka on September 9. Donetsk repeatedly said that the People’s Militia had to resort to such measures because Kiev refused to acknowledge its violations of additional ceasefire control measures. The Contact Group decided its extraordinary videoconference on September 9 to carry out a joint inspection with the view of remedying the violations. Following this decision, the DPR revoked the order to destroy the fortifications.

The demands that Kiev remedy the violations were first issued in Donetsk on August 28. During the operation of additional ceasefire control measures, Ukrainian servicemen installed new fortifications advancing them towards the Seversky Donets-Donbass water duct arc, a key water supply line in the region, with the view of gaining a foothold there.

The package of tighter ceasefire control measures came into force in Donbass on July 27, 2020. The document bans the use of any weapons, deployment of hardware, special operations, engineer works and flights of unmanned aerial vehicles.*jk