Ukraine’s Minister of the Interior has taken the initiative to adopt a law on collaborators instead of an amnesty law. DPR People’s Council deputy Elena Shishkina commented on this statement.

“Arsen Avakov is a man who came to power illegally through the armed coup. Therefore, the charges against Donbass residents of the forcible seizure of power sound especially cynical when coming from him. However, the same is true of most Ukrainian politicians. Avakov personally gave orders running contrary to the Ukrainian laws and the international law, and he is responsible for the loss of thousands of lives, including civilians. This person has neither legal nor moral right to blame Donbass residents and divide them into categories, decide whom to forgive and whom to judge. On the contrary, it is the resident of Donbass who have this right and have already held the Ukrainian National Tribunal, at which Avakov, Poroshenko, Turchinov and others were found guilty of organizing a genocide, violating the laws and customs of war, abetting the commission of terrorist acts and so forth. They are already sentenced to life imprisonment.

Moreover, in accordance with the Minsk Agreements, any law on collaborators is out of question as only amnesty law is envisaged by the Package of Measures, and this topic should be discussed only in this reference. The attempt to introduce the word “collaborator”, that is, a person collaborating with the enemy, into the legal field of Ukraine is another attempt to make Russia a participant in the conflict. In this sense, the unanimity of Arsen Avakov and President Zelensky is indicative. Despite internal contradictions, their rhetoric about Donbass is exactly the same and almost literally repeats Poroshenko’s rhetoric. It is obvious that neither Zelensky, nor Avakov, nor other Ukrainian politics can end the Donbass conflict peacefully, and don’t even have the will to do this. And such statements, broadcast by the main Ukrainian TV channels, only confirm these conclusions,” the parliamentarian said.