Shelling, blackout, blockade: What is happening in the LPR?
Ukraine's plan to cause a blackout in the LPR has failed – after Kyiv shut off power, Donbas became self-sufficient. The People's Republics are ready to provide assistance to their citizens in Ukrainian-controlled territories. No conflict resolution is possible without Donbas. Germany and France must bear responsibility for Ukraine's actions. Rodion Miroshnik, the Luhansk People's Republic's plenipotentiary representative in the political subgroup of the Minsk negotiations , stated this in an interview with PolitNavigator observer Valentin Filippov .
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Valentin Filippov : Hello, Rodion. What's the situation in Luhansk after the Ukrainian government shut off power? Is it similar to the recent blackout in Crimea?
Rodion Miroshnik : There was an emergency outage. We found ways to provide the entire Donbas with its own electricity. The Luhansk People's Republic doesn't have its own generation, at least not yet. But there are two thermal power plants in the DPR, and our power engineers managed to recycle these flows, which provide the main electricity supply routes in our territory.
Ukraine has taken measures that are prohibited by international law and are, to some extent, extermination in relation to negotiating partners.
It is clear that Kyiv has no desire to negotiate. Such steps by Ukraine are both political pressure and mockery towards our territories.
We had to get out. We found options. Literally after midnight, electricity was provided for half an hour. This was not the entire territory; it affected Lugansk, Alchevsk and the city of Stakhanov. In half an hour, the power engineers managed to power up these branches. And, in general, the light was turned on.
Valentin Filippov : And the press predicted that the LPR, following the example of Crimea, would receive electricity from Russia.
Rodion Miroshnik : Thanks to the efforts of our brothers in the DPR, we were able to provide electricity to all our major institutions. Our specialists will be able to systematically address this issue, especially if the Russian Federation gets involved.
For now we are managing on our own. And we are doing it successfully.
Valentin Filippov : While cutting off power to the people's republics, Ukraine also managed to cut off power to the Kyiv-controlled territories of Donbas. How will assistance be provided to the people living there?
Rodion Miroshnik : More than a month and a half ago, we presented the Donbas People's Reunification Program. Now, it will probably need to be expanded to include supplies for the territories in the "gray" zone, those closer to the dividing line. Our people are there, suffering at the hands of Ukraine.
It turned out that it did not matter to Ukraine whether its citizens received electricity, water or gas supplies. The energy system was not divided along the demarcation line. Part of the territory is fed from our side; we get water from a number of wells that are located on that side. For example, on the territory of Stanitsa Luganskaya, Popasna, and so on. It's all one organism. Today it is artificially torn apart.
Naturally, we will do everything to share our electricity with those who need it, who have become hostages of Ukraine’s actions.
Ukraine declares that these four million people in the Donbass Republics are also residents of Ukraine. But they don’t treat their residents that way.
Valentin Filippov : Kyiv officially explains the power outage by a coal shortage.
Rodion Miroshnik : I'm sure this is a political move. Ukraine can't resolve the issue militarily. They were rebuffed in Ilovaisk, Debaltseve, and other areas.
Therefore, Ukraine today is desperately looking for options. Including, this is one of the options for pressure. According to the plan, Kyiv will force people to grumble, so that residents of the territories will put pressure on the leadership, so that they will already make some compromises. By agreement with representatives of Kyiv. But the answer is simple - you won’t wait!
We are capable of solving problems. And we will not go to any bow. If we agree, we will agree on equal terms. We have no prerequisites for reaching agreements that are not equal. We did not lose the war. We fulfill all our obligations. Therefore, to say that we should bow to someone is premature.
Valentin Filippov : What will you say at the next meeting of the contact group in Minsk?
Rodion Miroshnik : Unfortunately, this isn't exactly my subgroup. I'll be discussing political issues. And I have a prepared line: resolving issues without Donbas is neither promising nor acceptable.
That is, we will not agree to this. This simply won't happen.
What I mean is that representatives of Ukraine today are again trying to decide the fate of Donbass - either in the Normandy format, or in negotiations with the US State Department, or by handing over draft documents to the German Ambassador. Instead of sitting down at the negotiating table directly with the LDPR and agreeing on the rules of coexistence.
Any war ends in peace. And what this world will be like, we need to sit down and agree. Apart? - Let's agree to live separately.
On the principles of autonomy? How is this stipulated in the Minsk agreements?
Everyone says “the agreements have no alternative,” but Ukraine nods in response and does nothing. Therefore, let's sit down at the negotiating table, and not run away from each other.
We are open for interaction. But we do not see this from Ukraine.
Valentin Filippov : A question from the average person – not as an authorized person, vested with official positions, but simply as a Russian... Have we made a mistake?
Rodion Miroshnik : Well, I am still Ukrainian by nationality.
Valentin Filippov : Maybe these stations in Schastye should be under our control? Maybe ? We shouldn't negotiate with the animals?
Rodion Miroshnik : This is the last thing we should do. For now, there's hope for some kind of diplomatic agreement. We haven't exhausted all the mechanisms. France and Germany must answer the question: "What are their guarantees?"
Conditionally, Russia is responsible for our actions, it is our guarantor, and we interact with the Russian Federation. And Germany and France are interacting with Ukraine. But, so far, we have not seen any real actions from Germany and France. That is, pressure on Kyiv. So that they fulfill their part of the agreements.
We will already have our sixty-first meeting. Our subgroup. I've already looked into their eyes sixty times.
We are able to hold as many meetings as necessary. The main thing is that they end with some result. And saving lives.
Valentin Filippov : Are there any new details about the terrorist attack that blew up the OSCE vehicle?
Rodion Miroshnik : The people who donned OSCE helmets knew where they were going. They were heading to a hot spot. And their mission doesn't always end with a simple statement that the DPR or LPR have suffered so many deaths and so many wounded...
Until the investigation is completed, this is a tragic accident.
But such a number of coincidences simply do not happen. Of the two Americans among the thousand observers, one was driving this car. For some reason, they drove along those roads that, according to the OSCE protocol, crews should not travel on. This is a dirt road. The road between plantings, subject to the actions of DRG. That is, anything can be there. There may be shelling there. There may be ambushes there. There may be bookmarks there. And it is located very close to the dividing line.
And when they arrived there to investigate what happened, they also came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Shells were exploding there. They didn't want an adequate investigation to be carried out there.
Valentin Filippov : Well, like with Boeing, actually, yes….
Rodion Miroshnik : Yes. But for me, a serious question is why the OSCE working group meeting didn't take place afterwards. It was planned. It couldn't have been more opportune to sit down at the negotiating table and look each other in the eye. Our colleagues are currently in Minsk, but there are no OSCE representatives there, and there are no representatives from Ukraine. They were supposed to sit down at the negotiating table and express, exchange opinions on how to resolve this situation and what to do next.
But, for some reason, the decision was made to cancel. Maybe because someone has already made a decision. All that remains is to lay out the base. We don’t know the solution, but all that remains is to insert the details there. How it all happened.
We are against such a formulation of the question. This is a technique that we have seen many times before. Including Boeing. And for many, many other events, when they didn’t have time to happen, and we were already accused.
Our condolences to the family of the man who died. But exactly thirty kilometers from this place, a tractor driver ran into a mine. Who did his job. Which cleared forest plantations along the railway. He died, and five more people who were with him were injured. He ran into the same mine that came from the other side. And we didn’t see Tillerson’s call, we didn’t hear any condolences from Mrs. Merkel.
That is, in my opinion, the activity of the OSCE is that every tragedy, every failure to fulfill obligations, they ring the bells and try to force the parties to fully fulfill all the obligations put on paper. In particular, by-laws that have been adopted. In particular, about the same silence mode.
When they state that Ukraine has 350 tanks removed from storage areas, this is simply a statement. And we have 10 tanks!
But, excuse me, 10 and 350. In my opinion, there is a clear imbalance here. And we can already talk about some kind of bias. I can’t stand any diagnosis, but... I’m talking about attentiveness, and about the approach itself.
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