Luhansk to Kiev: Kick Out the Fascists, Then We’ll Think of ‘Reintegration’

Commenting on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's remarks on Ukrainian television Saturday that only reintegration can return Ukraine its territory, Deputy Chairman of the People's Council of the Luhansk People's Republic Vladislav Deynego stated that real reintegration would become possible only if a 'defascization' of Ukrainian politics were to take place.

In an interview for Ukrainian television channel Inter on Saturday evening, Poroshenko noted that "guns, tanks, Grad artillery and rockets alone will not return Ukraine its territory." The president noted that there are other means: "In diplomatic terminology this is called reintegration –the return of territory to the sovereign authority in Ukraine. This is an inevitability," Poroshenko said.

Speaking to the Luhansk Information Center on Sunday, Deynego responded the president's remarks by noting that indeed a so-called "point of no return" on reintegration has "not been reached." Moreover, "provided that there is a concrete and prompt fulfillment of a complex series of measures, Ukraine has a chance to renew itself, to cleanse itself of fascist minions and pro-fascist politicians and to return to the democratic path of development. Only in this case can we talk about reunification, reintegration…into a united, truly popular, democratic state of all those territories which, until recently, considered themselves part of Ukraine."

Deynego stated that the algorithm providing for the first steps toward reintegration had already been laid out in the "Package of Measures Aimed at Implementing the Minsk Agreements" signed February 12, 2015, but that Kiev "systematically evades and violates elements of the agreement and arbitrarily changes its interpretation of the document."

The representative noted that steps toward integration cannot be possible while "what we have in our case is a government in Kiev which is literally carrying out a policy of genocide against the residents of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk…Residents of these areas have seen their freedom of movement restricted, the supply of food and essential commodities blocked, together with the banking and financial system; there is an economic and energy blockade. Sabotage and terror attacks have a systematic character (what else, for example, could one call the destruction of a railway bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska, which serves as the main cargo delivery point in the LPR?). The shelling of towns and villages by heavy weaponry has added some 'color' to the already vivid portrait of Kiev's 'friendly and peaceful intentions' on the 'reintegration' of the region."

Commenting on Kiev's erratic politics in relation to Donbas, Deynego noted that "just yesterday Ukraine's armed forces once again disrupted the LPR's power and water supply. That is, in the morning, we face terror, and in the evening, we are offered 'reintegration'. This is the essence of the convoluted logic of the current powers that be in Kiev." Noting the absurdity of the situation, the LPR representative noted that "one gets the impression that it was not Poroshenko that participated at the Normandy Four meeting, but his body double. Or perhaps his 'double' sits somewhere deep in his subconscious, which causes him to thrash about, to abandon positions agreed up earlier, and speak in terms of black and white. Or perhaps this 'double' is not inside Poroshenko at all, but is located somewhere far away, perhaps across the ocean," Deynego concluded.