Donetsk, Feb 12 – DAN. Kiev’s attempts to shut down the Donetsk People’s Republic Representative Centre in Verona is a violation of European laws, the Republic’s envoy to the Contact Group, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova told the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.
“It’s not the first time that Kiev, with misplaced insistence, demands that European countries authorities violate their own laws and shut down the DPR representative centres,” Nikonorova said. “Apparently, the Ukrainian diplomats’ actions stem from the fear that the centres might spread the true information about what is happening in Donbass.”
The DPR representative centres were set up in full compliance with the legislation of the host European countries, the DPR foreign minister said adding that she hoped that the Kiev authorities’ bid to shut down the DPR centres would not succeed.
“We expect the internationally recognised and guarantied rights of own citizens to be observed,” Nikonorova said.
Reports on February 11 said that the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy sent a note of protest to the Italian Foreign Ministry over the opening of the DPR representative centre in Verona on February 9. In 2018, the Ukrainian Embassy unsuccessfully tried to have the DPR centre in Turin shut down; back then, it was proven that it operated in compliance with Italian legislation.
The DPR opened its second representative centre in Italy’s Verona on February 9. Overall the DPR set up six such centres in the European Union.*jk