Donetsk, Jun 16 - DAN. Ukrainian authorities are unable to ensure the observance of rights and freedoms of Donbass residents, head of the Donetsk Republic social movement Central Executive Committee Alexey Muratov told the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.

On June 15, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told the Ukrinform news agency that DPR residents would enjoy more rights and opportunities even without a special status within Ukraine than in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

“The post-Maidan Ukraine has nothing for which Donbass residents stood up for in 2014, yet it has many things which we cannot allow on our land,” Muratov said. “ In such Ukraine, Donbass residents not only will have no rights or opportunities, but also no future.”

The public activist reminded about the Ukrainian policy of limiting the rights of Russian-speaking residents, persecution on ethnic or religious grounds, suppression of political dissidence and excusing Ukrainian Nazis’ World War II crimes.

“Poverty, tears and blood are left to Ukrainian citizens with whose hands the West has been waging the Donbass war for more than six years in order to realise its geopolitical interests while lining pockets,” Muratov said noting that in this situation, residents of the region are casting their lot with Russia.*jk