Putin: Poroshenko told me directly: “Take Donbass”
Moscow – Kiev, April 6 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – Vladimir Putin, at a closed meeting with the RSPP board of directors, told businessmen that Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko offered him to "take Donbass" into Russia, but he refused, Forbes reports.
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We are talking about the closed part of the event on March 19, when the president met with the bureau of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) immediately after speaking at the union congress. Putin devoted most of the meeting to the situation in southeastern Ukraine, notes the publication, which cites sources familiar with the situation.
According to the publication’s interlocutor, the Russian President told businessmen that Poroshenko, at the “Normandy Four” negotiations in Minsk on February 11-12, allegedly offered him to take Donbass into Russia.
“He [Poroshenko] told me directly: “Take Donbass.” I answered him: “Have you gone crazy, or what? I don't need Donbass. If you don’t need it, then declare its independence,” one of the publication’s sources, familiar with the content of the conversation, quoted Putin as saying. According to the Russian president, Poroshenko said that the Ukrainian authorities could not agree to this, in response to which Putin allegedly demanded that the Ukrainian authorities pay pensions and benefits to the population of Donbass and restore the banking system.
One of the meeting participants, who asked for confidentiality, confirmed that Putin told business about Poroshenko’s unexpected proposal to “take Donbass for financial support” and his refusal to do so.
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied Putin's account to the publication, citing the closed format of Putin's conversation with the RSPP bureau, NG writes.
Putin: Poroshenko told me directly : "Take Donbass"