Putin: “If this chaos begins in the South-Eastern regions, we have all the means to protect citizens”
Moscow - Kyiv, March 04 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) - Russia reserves the right to send troops into the South-Eastern regions of Ukraine if requests are received from there to protect Russians and Russian-speaking citizens from the new authorities in Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this at a press conference.
Subscribe to Navigator Kyiv news >>>
“This is an extreme case, of course... We see the revelry of Nazis, nationalists, anti-Semites, which is now happening in some parts of Ukraine, including in Kiev... You probably saw how one of the current governors was chained on the street, in winter they poured water on him, then imprisoned in a basement and tortured. What is this, democracy? He was appointed only in December, even if we assume that all authorities are corrupt, he has not yet managed to steal anything,” the president said.
As another example, he cited the storming of the office of the Party of Regions in Kyiv. “The engineer who came to the threshold and asked to let the women through was immediately shot. The second one was driven into the basement, pelted with Molotov cocktails and burned alive,” Putin claims.
“We understand what worries the citizens of Ukraine, Russians, Russian-speaking people living in the South-Eastern regions... If this chaos begins in the South-East regions, we have all the means to protect citizens,” he warned.
“All citizens of Ukraine, no matter where they live, should be given the same rights to participate in the life of the country and determine the future of this country. If I were in the place of those who consider themselves legitimate authorities, I would hasten with the appropriate procedures,” the Russian leader emphasized.
“We believed, believe and will continue to believe that Ukraine is our fraternal republic. Our armed forces are comrades in arms, friends. Many people know each other personally. I am sure that Ukrainian and Russian military personnel will not be on opposite sides of the barricades, but on one side. Roughly the same thing is happening in Crimea. Thank God, there was not a single shot and not a single casualty, except for the stampede in the square,” Putin said.
According to him, in Crimea, local residents are calling on the Ukrainian military to go over to the side of Simferopol, fulfilling “the demands and will of the people living in this territory.”
Putin clarified that the security of Russian facilities in Crimea has been strengthened, since Moscow had signals that “militants from nationalist organizations are already moving to Crimea.”
English version :: Read in English Putin: “If this chaos begins in the South-Eastern regions, we have all the means to protect citizens”