Interim Prime Minister, Yatsenyuk,
visited Donetsk today. He met with officials of the region, including
businessman Rinat Akhmetov, who is said to be the richest person in Ukraine.
Akhmetov said that the region of Donbass should remain part of Ukraine. After
the discussions in Donetsk Yatsenyuk agreed to recommend that Parliament pass a
law on holding local referendum, and to give more regional autonomy.
Meanwhile, Officials are
trying to negotiate a deal whereby the protesters would vacate the buildings in
Donetsk in return for protection from prosecution. Yatsenyuk told reporters to
tell people that the present is tough, but that the future will bring more
secure jobs, increased salaries, investors and distributed authority. This is
his plan for national unity. According to Yatsenyuk it will be two years before
Ukraine’s economy is on track. This announcement was met with high degrees of
scepticism.
In the regions of Donetsk and
Kharkiv many young people do
not see any difference between corrupt leadership in Russia and corrupt
leadership in Ukraine. For them, there is little hope that a new government
will offer any change.
Seven miners
died today in an explosion at the Skochinsky mine outside Donetsk. This was
unrelated to the recent tensions.
Ukrainian military equipment
is still being withdrawn from Crimea (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea). The Defence Ministry confirmed that
Russian groups in Crimea are doing everything they can to incapacitate the
military equipment that is being returned to mainland Ukraine. This
announcement came after many denounces from people on the peninsula.
However,
volunteer groups throughout Ukraine have begun a massive collection of
funds for the army. This is an independent initiative, not connected to
government. Groups are providing assistance to specific military units. For
example, they are collecting funds for the purchase of uniforms for airborne
troops in Mykolayiv.
In Verchovna
Rada (Parliament), presentations from Presidential candidates for the May 25th
elections are ongoing. Poroshenko is leading the polls, with Tymoshenko second
behind him. Although, Presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev assured separatists in
Donetsk that he will do everything to disrupt the presidential elections. This
seems a counter-productive claim for a presidential candidate, but it
demonstrates his intentions of pushing for greater autonomy to Eastern regions.
Russian Foreign Minister,
Lavrov, said today in a press conference that it is important for Russia that
Ukrainian authorities establish a dialogue with the people. He said, "we
want Ukraine to be holistic in its current borders, but integral with full
respect for the regions". Despite
Lavrov’s statement, the Russian Prosecutor General said that Russia would not
extradite Yanukovych to Ukraine, based on the fact that he remains the
‘legitimate President of Ukraine’.
Also, an editorial oversight
in Russian state-controlled TV-channels reveals how Russian propaganda works:
The two nationwide channels of Russia – NTV and Russia-1 – depicted the same
person to be both an extremist from Germany, who supported a
far-right movement in Ukraine; and a pro-Russian protester, who became victim
of Ukrainian nationalists.
NTV told viewers: the person
is a German citizen who trained a group of 50 EU citizens to cooperate with
‘Right Sector’ in Ukraine, to shoot into peaceful pro-Russian protesters.
Russia-1 told viewers: the
person was a peaceful ‘federalization supporter’ in Ukraine (pro-Russia
activist), who became victim of Ukrainian far-right extremists of ‘Right
Sector’, who were, supposedly, backed by Ukrainian police and army. The person
was shot in leg and, as Russia-1 reports, ‘will not walk for half a year.’
Then, in reality the person
is (or he says he is): 1) a pro-Russian activist; 2) citizen of Germany; 3) who brought to Ukraine 500,000 Euro of “his own money” to support
pro-Russian protests; 4) caught a bullet
in a clash between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists in Mykolaiv,
Southern Ukraine. It is unclear who
shot him.
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