Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin believes that the curfew should be abolished in cities and districts of the Republic. In an exclusive interview with a correspondent of the Official Website of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Head of State commented in detail on the results of the temporary suspension of the curfew during the New Year holidays, and also spoke about the prospects for further resolution of this issue.
“As we have repeatedly said, this is a really hot-button issue. It has become so overdue that we had to carry out some kind of an experiment to see whether we can ensure the safety of our citizens without curfew.
In general, it can be said that everything went without any emergency situations. And this is largely owing to the fact that preventive measured had been enhanced by law enforcement agencies. There were no detentions, no “arrests” for Ukrainian passports! There were additional checks, absolutely justified by the fact that our adversaries use exactly Ukrainian passports when carrying out some sort of sabotage and reconnaissance activities and dispatching here specialists in sabotage. There they can make any registration, it’s all in their hands. And it is quite difficult for our law enforcement agencies to verify the authenticity of the identity of a particular person, because we have no access to updated Ukrainian databases now. And we do not need them! But this ties the hands of law enforcement agencies in a certain sense. If everything is clear with DPR passports, everything is clear with passports of the Russian Federation, with Ukrainian passports there were required additional steps. This is exactly what happened.
As for to Ukrainian number plates, a decision has long been made that residents of the Republic are to have DPR plates at hand. Moreover, if someone arrives here on a visit, certain documents are drawn up, like an entry declaration, all this is possible. But for some reason, many pay no attention to it. This also complicates the work of law enforcement agencies. For example, when a car accident occurs. But we do not have Ukrainian bases. And where shall we to look for the law breaker? If this person doesn’t have a Republic’s number plate and hasn’t made out documents when crossing the border, this creates certain difficulties.
There were concerns that nightly criminal activities would rise upon the abolition of the curfew. Crime will come out of the shadows, and this will seriously affect our citizens. I can say that our concerns have not materialized. We need to end up with the complete curfew abolition in stages,” Denis Pushilin said.