MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) – The failure of this week's military crackdown by Kiev authorities on protesters in eastern Ukraine was a foregone conclusion, as the army will not fight peaceful protesters unless provoked by outside forces, former Chief of the Russian General Staff told RIA Novosti Thursday.
“Any army would not shoot its own people, whom it is obliged to protect under the Constitution,” General Yury Baluyevsky said.
The comment came a day after some 60 Ukrainian soldiers dispatched to the city of Kramatorsk, laid down their arms and joined demonstrators, having refused to take part in an operation to suppress anti-government protests in the region.
“The demands of the protesters are very simple and clear: there should be a referendum, and then presidential elections,” Baluyevsky said, adding that citizens in the country have the right to violate the rules of an illegitimate government as they seek to protect their rights.
The general said that peaceful demonstrations would not lead to military forces firing on their own countrymen, except in the case provocateurs from ultra-nationalist groups, such as Right Sector, were to artificially stir up a conflict.
Beginning last month, protests supporting federalization have swept across the eastern parts of the country to protect the country’s minority populations following the rise of far-right forces in the capital.
The authorities in Kiev – who themselves came to power amid Western-backed protests in February – announced earlier this week the launch of a military crackdown on the demonstrators.Moscow, along with a number of regions within Ukraine, has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new authorities.
Clashes between protesters and government forces in the cities of Kramatorsk, Slaviansk and Mariupol this week have, in each case, left several people dead.
