Donetsk, Aug 5 - DAN. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has very limited knowledge about the history of Donbass; his statement concerning the future and past of the region causes nothing but regret, Donetsk People’s Republic Foreign Minister, DPR representative in the Contact Group Natalia Nikonorova told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky earlier said in an interview with the Dom television channel that it was a big mistake to stay in Donbass for the residents who considered themselves Russians, and urged them to leave for Russia.
“Vladimir Zelensky’s latest remarks evoke the feeling which the modern world calls “secondhand embarrassment,” when the words or actions by other person make one feel embarrassed, “ Nikonorova said. “For example, the Ukrainian president muses that ‘Donbass will never be Russian territory.’ The gaps in Mr Zelensky’s education are so big that he probably never heard that since time immemorial, Donbass has been and still is Russian, a Russian-speaking region.”
Zelensky should quickly catch up on his history and find out the difference between the notions “russky (Russian)” and “rossiisky (of the Russian state),” she said.
“As for Mr Zelensky’s calls on the Republics' residents “to go look for a place in Russia” for the sake of their children and grandchildren, he in fact openly acknowledges that the Ukrainian authorities still do not understand the true causes behind the Donbass conflict. The conflict which began not so much because of the love for Russia which truly exists, but foremost due to Kiev’s reluctance to hear us, our opinion and our disagreement with lawless Maidan events,” Nikonorova said.
She reminded that at the referendum on May 11, 2014, some 94 percent of the population of the then Donetsk and Lugansk regions voted for Donbass independence.
“You offer all them to leave, Mr Zelensky?” Over these seven years, Kiev has not developed the readiness to hear Donbass, while the conflict has aggravated due to Ukraine’s ruthless, inhuman and extremely cynical attitude toward us,” the DPR diplomat said.
Ukrainian authorities repeatedly raised the issue of moving Russians from Donbass. In autumn 2019, a letter of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexey Danilov appeared on the Internet, addressing the head of the president’s office, the director of the Security Service of Ukraine and the prime minister. According to the plan outlined in the letter, a majority of Donbass residents are not pro-Ukrainian and have to be penalized under administrative and criminal laws, and moved to Russia or central or western regions of Ukraine. However,Danilov later alleged that the latter was a fake and that it was being circulated by Russia.*jk