Kiev has little chances to win the battle against Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as Kiev’s policy increasingly disposes the local population against the current Ukrainian government, the German “Der Spiegel” magazine stated.
In autumn 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took drastic measures and stopped payments of pensions and benefits to the independence supporters in southeastern regions of Ukraine. Hospitals, orphanages and schools have not received any funding from Kiev since then.
"We will have pensions, they will not; our children will go to school, their children will sit in cellars. This way, and only this way we can win the war,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at that time, cited by the magazine.
However, Kiev’s strategy did not work and only caused outrage in southeastern regions of Ukraine, the magazine wrote. Many of them believe more in Russia, than in Ukraine – as the first provides them with humanitarian assistance, while Kiev is trying to starve them to death.
The independence supporters present themselves as fighters against the "oligarchic power" in Ukraine. And here, they “hit the central weakness of their opponent”. About one year has passed since the Maidan revolution, but corrupt oligarchs’ clans still remain in power all across the country. Such situation disposes more and more people against the current government, which is not able to stick to the promises it made at the beginning, “Der Spiegel” wrote.
