The day before, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov gave an interview to a Ukrainian news agency, where he showed a photo of the Russian passport belonging to my colleague, an LPR representative to the Minsk talks. Moreover, the fact that they have the photo was sold as a kind of “victory” and “great credit of intelligence”, they also claim that holders of Russian passports allegedly cannot represent Donbass at the talks on resolving the conflict, DPR Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova commented.
“However, the Ukrainian figures are missing some points in the heat of their attempt to stir up a scandal. Firstly, passing the photo of the passport off as some great and monumental exposure is completely inappropriate and even ridiculous, since both Mr. Deynego and other representatives of the Republics in Minsk, and all the residents of Donbass who have acquired Russian passports, over 200 thousand people, are not ashamed of this fact and do not hide it. On the contrary, we are extremely grateful to the authorities of the Russian Federation and to the President personally for the humane decision to give us the opportunity to acquire the citizenship through the simplified procedure. We shall remind you that this decision was urgently required, because the Ukrainian authorities, who for 6 years now have been putting bounds to the rights and freedoms of the people of Donbass, have made and continue to make every effort to complicate the procedure of crossing the line of contact and obtaining or reconstituting any Ukrainian document as much as possible.
Secondly, it is necessary to negotiate the resolution of the conflict with those people who were born, live and work in Donbass and who have not left their Homeland. That is, if Kiev is really interested in the resolution and not in gallery play for better ratings, of course. May the fact that these people have Russian passports be another reminder for Ukraine that the residents of Donbass believe in peaceful intentions of Kiev less and less with every passing day. Accordingly, the more the Ukrainian authorities infringe our inalienable rights and freedoms, the more hatred and misunderstanding the actions of Kiev and the rhetoric of its representatives will evince, the more Ukraine and the Republics will alienate.
Thirdly, second-guessing all future “exposure attempts” from Ukraine, I give you a photo showing my identity documents. This “set” is characteristic of the residents of the Republics, it really eloquently reflects the course of events in Donbass for a certain period of time: we came from the USSR, then were a part of Ukraine, then, after 2014, when the new state betrayed us and unleashed the war against us, we had to defend ourselves and go our own way, to build and develop the Donetsk People’s Republic. At the same time, while Ukraine gives us only missiles, injuries and civilian casualties, pain and destruction, economic and transport blockades, illegal detentions and violations of our rights, the Russian Federation gives humanitarian aid, both with white trucks and with decrees designed to make our lives easier. It is high time the Kiev authorities understood that they have made every possible effort to ensure that Donbass is no longer a Ukrainian region as it used to be, and they continue to do so. Once armed forces shoot at their own people, this people is no longer theirs, and Ukraine has fired an enormous lot of these shots for the six years.
We are ready to talk to Kiev only on one condition: the Ukrainian authorities must realize at last that they will have to negotiate with representatives of the very people of Donbass, who now live in the DPR and the LPR, and not with some manageable brainwashed people following the guidelines of Kiev spin doctors,” Natalya Nikonorova said.