Donetsk People’s Republic

U.S. Defense Attaché to visit the Donbass front Feb. 7-8

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Current U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is Marie Yovanovitch.
U.S. Defense Attaché is Colonel Thomas Wofford.

From Fort Russ

February 7, 2018 – Fort Russ News –

– Novorosinform, translated by Tom Winter –

American Defense Advisor will visit the front line in Donbass.

In the coming days, a foreign commission headed by the defense attaché at the US Embassy in Ukraine will arrive in the occupied territory of Donbass, and the situation on the frontline is expected to worsen Lieutenant-Colonel Andrei Marochko told journalists today. Marochko is an official representative of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk Peoples Republic,

“In the coming days, we do not exclude situation on the line of contact getting worse, in connection with the arrival of a foreign commission headed by the Defense Attaché at the US Embassy in Ukraine,” the lieutenant colonel said.

According to him, the foreigners plan to visit the settlement of Svetlodorsk in the period from February 7-8.

“The work of a military delegation from the United States can be connected with testing the readiness of units of  mechanized brigade 54 of the Armed Forces to carry out offensive operations. It is during this period that we expect provocations from Ukrainian forces in the area of the Svetlodarskaya arc,” the representative of the Defense Ministry stressed.

“In addition, in the vicinity of the settlement Mironovsky, we note the arrival of a group of foreign officer-instructors. According to preliminary information, the mercenaries arrived from Canada for special tasks on the contact line,” Andrei Marochko added.

Recall, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Ukrainian troops in the interval between March and June intend to begin a full-scale war in the Donbass.

Some related background:
Yesterday presidential candidate and Yabloko party leader Yavlinsky said that Russia should give up supporting the Donbass.

Recall that Ivan Vynnyk, the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Bloc of Peter Poroshenko and secretary of the Committee on National Security and Defense, believes that after the adoption of the bill on the reintegration of Donbass Ukraine legally can cleanse the DNR and LNR.

Andrei Biletsky, MP, and leader of the Nazi “National Corps” *, the founder of the regiment “Azov” * MP Rada, in turn, said that the leadership of Ukraine should decide to give the order on the approach of the Armed Forces in the Donbass. And in parallel, Kiev must start a war of sabotage within the Russian Federation.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/american-defense-attache-to-visit.html

DPR forces beat back Ukrainian offensive on southern front

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From Fort Russ

November 26, 2016 – Fort Russ News –
RusVesna reports – translated by J. Arnoldski –
Active hostilities broke out this morning near the residential area of Sakhanka. This has been reported by a representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s operational command from the scene of events. 
The Ukrainian armed forces and volunteer battalions, including no less than three platoons and supported by artillery, attempted to go on the offensive from the direction of Dzerzhinskoye (called Azov in Ukraine). 
 
 
The attack was repulsed by the armed forces of the DPR and the enemy lost no less than 5 soldiers and 8 wounded. A UAF APC was also hit. 
Fighting also erupted near Shirokino, where the Ukrainian side attempted to attack the DPR’s positions on the southern front. The operational command of the DPR reported: “At 10:00 on November 26th, the enemy, with forces of up to three platoons of personnel and supported by armored vehicles under the cover of 82mm and 122mm mortar fire from Shirokino, attempted to attack our positions near the village of Vodyanoe. Over the course of the firefight, the enemy was stopped and driven back to their original positions.” 
The escalation of fighting began yesterday after Ukrainian Interior Minister Avakov’s statement that Kiev’s occupation forces could seize Donbass in two years. This is not the first unsuccessful attempt by Kiev to break through the DPR’s line of defense on the southern front in recent time. On November 23rd, 5 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 7 were wounded in a similar unsuccessful attempt. 
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/11/dpr-forces-beat-back-ukrainian.html

Victory Day in Donetsk — Hurrah to the heroes of the Donbass! Zakharchenko in full uniform [video]

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From Fort Russ

May 9th, 2015
Joaquin Flores

Happy Victory Day from Donetsk Republic, to Fort Russ friends and readers!
The Novorossiyan Republic of Donetsk also commemorated Victory Day today.  Enjoy the video and photos!
Besides Crimea, Novorossiya is really the only place, in what the west still considers ‘Ukraine’, where real Victory Day observations were held.  But, even before the coup nearly a year and a half ago, the observations were still muted under the western influence and the ‘moderate’ Ukrainian nationalism of Kuchma.
So, these observations and popular commemorations are really in the ‘Russian style’; this communicates clearly how Novorossiya sees itself – as part of the larger Eurasian world of several, many, Russias.
Another thing is certain too – The DPR Army isn’t a rag-tag bunch of drunken rebels or criminal outlaws, as is repeated ad nauseum in the walled garden of Ukropian daily propaganda.  This is, as we say in the Anglophonic world – “The real deal”.
https://youtu.be/Nh-oDopa798
[Full]

[Alternate short]

[Beautiful photographs of the parade on Fort Russ]
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/big-victory-day-in-donetsk-zakharchenko.html

Also:

Epic Video Highlight from Donetsk Victory Day:Motorola & Givi
May 9th, 2015

Joaquin Flores
Motorola with Sparta and Givi with Somali opened the Victory Parade in Donetsk and were met by the cheering and applause of spectators. Glory to the Heroes of Donbass!
Bear in mind that the people you see cheering roadside have withstood a state of constant war for nearly a year, have been shelled, hundreds of thousands displaced, terrorized by deathsquads by night before the airport was finally cleared of the cyborgs, and have nevertheless held on and supported their new born People’s Republic, as if their lives depend on it – because they do. 
The battalions you see rolling through the streets of Donetsk city are not just ceremonial; these are the real-living modern heroes of today’s conflict against imperialism and the liberal-nazism of the Kiev Junta.  These are the people’s heroes, guardians of the republic.
https://youtu.be/EwAhyBJiag8

http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/epic-video-highlight-from-donetsk.html

Ceasefire reported as of 12:30 PM, April 12, between DPR and Ukrainian army

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From Sputnik News, April 12, 2015
Ukraine peace process moves forward as shelling stops

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Ukrainian army have reportedly agreed to stop shelling as of 12:30 on Sunday.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have clinched a deal with the Ukrainian army to stop shelling each other; the agreement came into force at 12:30 on Sunday, according to Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for DNR’s Defense Ministry.

“There was an agreement with the Ukrainian side to halt shelling from 12:30,” Basurin was quoted as saying by local media outlets.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150412/1020786641.html

DPR PM Zakharchenko: U.S. already supplying lethal weapons to Kiev; Ukraine military bringing back heavy artillery to front lines

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From Russia Insider

KIEV, March 24. /TASS/. The United States is already supplying weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, has said.

“The United States is already supplying weapons there. For instance, in Debaltsevo we saw US ammunition. That’s a lethal weapon,” he told a news briefing. “NATO planes land at the airports of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv every day.”

Zakharchenko said that Ukraine was bringing back heavy weapons to the line of disengagement.

“Ukraine has not pulled back weapons. It is bringing them back. The pullout was a fake,” he said.

The militias are expecting more provocations by Ukraine’s volunteer battalions, “which have already said they are not obeying orders from Kiev,” he said.

In case the situation gets worse, Zakharchenko said, the Ukrainian forces may mount attacks in three directions – south, north-western and in the area of Debaltsevo to cut the Donetsk Republic away from the Luhansk Republic.

“The way I see the situation, I believe there will be three attacks,” Zakharchenko said. “The main group of the Ukrainian forces is concentrated in the areas of Volnovakha, Krasnogolovka, Artyomovsk, Kurakhovo and other communities.”

http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/24/4908

DPR defense ministry reports 34 episodes of shelling by Kiev troops

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From TASS, March 21, 2015

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Thirty-four episodes of shelling by Kiev troops at militia positions and settlements of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have been fixed over the past 24 hours, republic’s defence ministry reports.

There have been no early reports about casualties among the population, but destruction in the private sector has been reported, the Donetsk News Agency quotes the ministry as saying.

“The enemy attacked both positions of militias and residential areas,” the ministry reported, adding that the cities of Gorlovka, Donetsk and Lozovoye were also shelled.

Marathon talks between the Normandy Four leaders – Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – in Minsk on February 12 yielded a package of agreements, which in particular envisaged ceasefire between the Ukrainian conflicting sides starting from midnight on February 15.

The package of measures envisages the pullback of all heavy weapons by both parties to locations equidistant from the disengagement line in order to create a security zone at least 50 kilometers wide for artillery systems with a caliber of 100 mm or more, a zone of security 70 kilometers wide for multiple rocket launchers and a zone 140 kilometers wide for multiple rocket launchers Tornado-S, Uragan and Smerch and the tactical rocket systems Tochka-U.

The final document says that the Ukrainian troops are to be pulled back away from the current line of engagement and the militias of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, from the engagement line set by the Minsk Memorandum of September 19, 2014.

http://tass.ru/en/world/784157

“We have built an independent state” – Interview with Deputy PM, Donetsk People’s Republic

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By Mikhail Mnukhin
Posted on Global Research, March 7, 2015

We have the honor of interviewing First Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Mikhail Mhukhin. He speaks to us about the ongoing crisis in the DPR, the history of Donbass and its relationship to Ukraine, and initiatives currently being implemented to end the conflict. For further correspondence, you can visit the official MOFA DPR website at mid-dnr.ru/en/.

HANEUL: One year after the US-backed Euromaidan coup, Ukraine is still engaged in a long and bloody civil war. What progress have you made in the fight against the fascist Ukranian military, Svoboda, and Right Sector?

MIKHAIL: First and most importantly, we have built an independent state. Even though some parts of our territory are still controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the state system of the DPR is fully functional and controls all vital operations. We can pay salaries and social dowries, form state budgets, and arrange foreign trade.

At present, the DPR has legitimately elected authorities: the Head of the Republic, [Prime Minister] Alexander Zakharchenko, and the supreme legislative body, the People`s Council. The elections for local Councils will take place soon.

It should be stressed that we have achieved all these goals during unceasing hostilities and blockades made by the Ukrainian authorities, in addition to the critical humanitarian situation in the region. In our opinion, all of these problems are the main arguments in the fight against our enemy. We managed not only to survive, but also to develop a full-fledged state.

Militarily, the DPR Army has demonstrated to the whole world its ability to act effectively, and the number of magnificent victories over Ukrainian troops vindicates this. One should note that the number of UAF soldiers exceeds ours, as does their military equipment.

Nevertheless, we will always insist on and continue to desire a peaceful resolution to the conflict. We have never sought to annihilate Ukraine and the Ukrainians; however, our key issue is to provide the security of our people and to create the conditions for a normal, peaceful life. We are always ready for dialogue, even with Kiev.

HANEUL: After the May 11th referendum, the DPR declared itself independent from Ukraine, yet the international community has denounced your right to do so. Can you tell me what this signifies about democracy building?

MIKHAIL: The issue of DPR recognition remains urgent, indeed. This is the main priority for our Ministry`s work today, and we make progress gradually in this direction. The Republic of South Ossetia has officially recognized the DPR, and we are establishing diplomatic contacts now. The Republic of Abkhazia also announced its readiness to recognize the DPR.

Furthermore, we work in other areas of cooperation and with all countries on any continent. Some of them are officially recognized and some are not. Additionally, we are now actively promoting cooperation with other social and political movements to support the self-determination of their territories. This process is rather long and complex.

As for the position of a number of Western countries towards us, we understand extremely well the reasons of it. One should decide whether or not to recognize our Republic; it does not depend on us. From our side, we can ensure this process by proving our consistency as a full-fledged member of the international community. It is paradoxical that, even though the citizens of our state are similar to those in the USA, Britain, or Japan, we still have to prove our right to exist. In this regard, we have huge expectations of the public’s opinion, especially in western countries, as it starts to change. People from all over the world are getting to learn more truths about us, and we hope that your authorities will take an objective stance towards the DPR.

HANEUL: Can you give us a history of the Donetsk Oblast and its history in relation to Russia? Why did the DPR decide to remain autonomous instead of integrating into the Russian Federation like Crimea?

MIKHAIL: Donbass was always a place of enormous accumulated human resources’—the place where people of all nationalities united in order to labor together and use Russian as their common language. As a result, a unique political platform has arisen in Donbass; the consequences of which we can observe today. All this explains why Donbas has always strived for autonomy and independence.

Crimea has made its own long journey and has finally returned to Russia. However, we are two distinct regions and have formed differently. We do not have the goal to join Russia as a priority now, but instead follow our path to forming an independent state. We have resolved the social and economic problems brought about by Ukraine’s military aggression and complete transport and economic blockade of our land.

HANEUL: Historically, Ukrainians experienced the 1941 pogroms in Lyiv in which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army worked with the Nazis to murder thousands of Polish and Ukrainian citizens. Do you believe that you are reliving this nightmare? Who should be held accountable for this?

MIKHAIL: We stress that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA or UPA) did not act alone during World War II. With the support of foreign states, the UIA successfully existed in some regions from 1946 until 1948 as a local instrument of the Cold War. However, the ideologies of Ukrainian nationalists have not changed; just their owners.

Repetition is a peculiar feature of history. The tragedy in Odessa—the repression of dissidents and multiple war crimes—proves this fact. The above-mentioned organizations and people unfortunately follow the examples of their historical leaders and idols. However, they should remember the fate of the UIA and its leaders, which will partially help them to predict their own.

You can see throughout history the actions of the UIA and other nationalist groups, which were directed not only against Poles but also Russians, Jews and representatives of other ethnicities. Those who support neo-Nazism in Ukraine should think about where the Nazis would turn their weapons tomorrow.

HANEUL: Which international organizations are working with your government to provide humanitarian aid to your citizens, and how long do you estimate this crisis to last? How can people around the world become involved in reporting, assisting, or donating to your cause?

MIKHAIL: We are open to dialogue and are always ready to accept help from all organizations and private persons. There are a number of organizations operating in the DPR, such as the International Red Cross, Medicines Sans Frontiers, and dozens of other charity funds and communities.

Our experiences have shown that we are not alone—that many people from numerous countries are ready to help us sincerely and freely. For example, we have received a few trucks with medicaments from all over Germany, collected with the assistance of some Bundestag MPs.

Remember that Donetsk currently has a full economic blockade. The direct deliveries of financial assets, food products, and other goods to the DPR are impossible now, but we are trying to solve this problem everyday. We are very pleased and appreciate the desire of people from the entire world to help us.

HANEUL: Do you believe that PM Alexander Zakharchenko should have taken part in the second Minsk agreement in Belarus? Why didn’t the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France) include Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea into the peace talks? How have the peace talks helped ease tensions in Donbass, and do you believe that there should be separate talks between the DPR and other groups?

MIKHAIL: The situation surrounding the DPR, the LPR and Crimea cannot be combined in the negotiation process, as Crimea is already a part of Russia.

The Donetsk People`s Republic is one of several parties in the conflict, so without Alexander Zakharchenko`s participation, a negotiated resolution is impossible. However, we can explain Kiev’s harsh stance and attempts to ignore the DPR and LPR in the Normandy Four negotiations. Ukraine considers the truce as a period to accumulate military forces and prepare for further hostilities, and Kiev has never shown its full readiness for a lasting peace.

The real conflict is between the people of the southeast and Ukrainian government, whom should actually negotiate. Apart from that, the DPR’s entrance into the negotiation process means that it will achieve its new status, which Ukraine is trying to prevent. Alongside this, Ukraine is trying to expand the number of participants involved in the conflict, such as Germany and France, in order to supply them weapons. We hope this will not happen.

We are satisfied with Germany and France’s viewpoint; they have started to change their positions on events happening in Donbass. We expect that, instead of more sanctions, they will initiate humanitarian missions here in order to stop the catastrophe, not deteriorate it.

We are sure that peace will finally come, but we cannot achieve it with regular concessions from one side and continuous breaches from the other. Peace is always a compromise and we are ready for it, but only after ensuring the safety of our citizens.

HANEUL: The UAE has already committed weapons to the Ukrainian military, and the United States has considered arming the junta directly. If this occurs, how will this affect the current situation? Will this escalate to a large conflict between superpowers?

MIKHAIL: According to present information, the weapons contracts made between Ukraine and the UAE are not a significant concern, and we personally believe those contracts were made just for PR. We doubt Kiev managed to convince its partners to supply weapons on credit, and it does not have enough money to buy them. Another issue is the USA’s weaponry. According to confirmed information, they never stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine. Along the whole frontline, after each Ukrainian force’s retreat, one can easily find weapons made in America, including heavy artillery. Besides, the large amount of American personnel training Ukrainian soldiers invokes serious concern. In what way should we estimate [the outcome]? Exposing Washington`s participation in the Donbass conflict is difficult, but direct interventions take place and grow with every passing month, so it is very difficult to predict such consequences.

For more information, please visit The Last Defense at thelastdefense2012.tumblr.com or following us on Twitter at @thelastdefense

http://thelastdefense2012.tumblr.com/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/southeast-ukraine-we-have-built-an-independent-state-interview-with-deputy-pm-donetsk-peoples-republic-mikhail-mnukhin/5435211

Financial Times: Kiev is the aggressor

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From Russia Insider, February 14, 2015

Even those in Donetsk who originally supported Kiev have come to realize that Ukraine is waging a war against its own people.

Although this article tries to make the people of Donetsk appear gullible and indoctrinated, it does make one incredible admission: Kiev is waging a vicious war against its own people—something that East Ukrainians will never forget, and probably never forgive. This article originally appeared in Financial Times

As world leaders convened in Minsk this week to decide the fate of east Ukraine, Tatiana Prussova, a teacher at Khartsysk school number 23, stood in front of her class, a map on the wall behind her.

For 10 minutes, she led a group of 15 and 16-year-old students through the day’s lesson: a review of the recent developments in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). She explained a new local holiday — February 8: Day of the Young Anti-Fascist Heroes — and recounted a pivotal week in which the US was considering arming Kiev while the rebel army had gained ground around the crucial rail hub of Debaltseve.

“Thanks to the gains of our Donetsk People’s Republic rebels, the road to Debaltseve has been closed and the town has been encircled,” Ms Prussova told the students, gesturing at the map in the same way other history teachers might point to the battle lines in Flanders or the Napoleonic War.

The class is one of dozens of so-called political information lessons now being taught at schools across rebel-controlled east Ukraine. It is a Soviet tradition that was disbanded following the fall of the USSR but has been revived by the pro-Russian DPR’s education ministry.

“We decided to inform the children from an objective point of view about the current developments of what’s happening inside the Donetsk People’s Republic,” said Lidiya Aksyonova, the school’s principal. “The beliefs that we form here in school will in 10 years become the political views of our government.”

While some may see this week’s Minsk memorandum, which calls for a ceasefire in east Ukraine and the eventual re-establishment of national borders, as the first step towards the DPR’s disbandment, there are few signs in the region of a rebel leadership preparing to relinquish control — or a society that wants them to.

After a months-long siege that has destroyed local infrastructure, and left the population under the near-constant percussion of artillery, a new sense of regional identity has taken hold in Donetsk. Though some of it is being transmitted through top-down initiatives such as Ms Prussova’s class, much of it has come through the Ukrainian army’s shelling, which has turned many formerly pro-Ukrainian locals against Kiev.

Another source of anger for many was an October speech by President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, in which he declared that the region’s citizens would suffer for the rebel leaders’ actions. “Our children will go to school and nursery school, and theirs will sit in basement!” he declared, waving a finger.

“As a student, as the future generation, I was for a united Ukraine. We really believed in Poroshenko,” said Yekaterina, a 20-year-old student at Donetsk National University. While her family fled to the Ukrainian side during the summer, they were forced to return to Donetsk in September after they ran out of money. It was then that her feelings changed.

“We thought [Mr Poroshenko] would come to Donetsk, but he didn’t come once,” she said. She dismissed claims that Donetsk locals were being brainwashed by the rebel leadership and Russian television. “You don’t need to be a soldier to understand from what direction artillery fire is coming,” she said. “We have access to the internet. We’re not in the stone age. We’re not zombies.”

In Donetsk’s Kievsky district, one of the most heavily bombed parts of the city, a middle-aged worker named Svetlana said she had been living underground in a cold war-era bomb shelter with 50 of her neighbours since the bombing began in May. While she refused to take part in the separatists’ referendum and appeal to join Russia in May — “I could tell that something smelt funny,” she explained — her views changed during the months underground.

“How can I be for a united Ukraine when Kiev has spent the past six months bombing us?” she asked. “They came to power and destroyed the entire infrastructure of southeast Ukraine.”

Enrique Menendez, a Ukrainian-born businessman with Spanish roots, said one of Kiev’s biggest mistakes was to vilify the people of southeastern Ukrainian rather than open a dialogue.

“At the beginning, a lot of journalists, bloggers, opinion leaders — most of them pro-Ukrainian — left Donetsk. But when they got to Kiev, the rhetoric [about southeast Ukraine] was very negative,” said Mr Menendez. “This aggression and lack of understanding of what was going on here really offended the people that stayed behind.”

One of a dozen organisers of a March rally for a united Ukraine, Mr Menendez eventually decided to stay in Donetsk to set up an organisation that delivers humanitarian aid.

In August, there were only five people left in his apartment building. They would crowd into the corridor during the worst of the shelling. Now, nearly all the 80 or so former residents have returned.

“The wartime mentality has changed us,” he explained. “We’ve stopped valuing the superficial things in life. We’ve lost everything: our savings, our prospects, our businesses. Some people lost their relatives. But we’ve become more pure.”

Even though the rumble of artillery fire could still be heard in central Donetsk this week, much of city life felt normal. A ghost town for much of last year, most of the city’s residents have now returned. Restaurants and shops are reopening, and most local schools are in session.

Igor Kostenok, the DPR’s education minister, appears determined to use his post to encourage a lasting regional identity. In addition to the new political information classes, Mr Kostenok said schools would also teach students about the experience of youngsters who fought for the rebels during the summer.

“Our story of the Great Patriotic War [second world war] tells us that many children who were forced to grow up early because of the war took up arms and defended their home. History is doomed to repeat itself,” he said.

One such youngster is Alexander Vasin, a 16-year-old student from the Donetsk suburbs who fought at Donetsk airport over the summer in a rebel battalion called the 15th International Brigade, despite his parents’ objections. He returned when school resumed in September, but said he would go back to the battalion later this year if the war had not ended. Of the fighting, he said: “It’s difficult at the beginning, but you get used to it.”

A video of the fighting he shot on his mobile phone won a prize from the DPR education ministry and is now being shown at schools across the region.

 

http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/02/14/3489

Reprinted under Fair Use Rules.

Donetsk Republic Memorandum declares state continuity with Donetsk – Krivoy Rog Republic

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Posted on Fort Russ

February 5, 2015
Novorossia-Novosti
Translated by Kristina Rus

MEMORANDUM of Donetsk People’s Republic on the principles of state-building, political and historical continuity

We, members of the People’s Council of Donetsk People’s Republic of the first convocation, elected by universal democratic and free elections on November 2, 2014, taking into account the principles of international law, embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, proclaim the Memorandum on the principles of state-building, political and historical continuity.

Based on the will of the people of Donbass, expressed in the referendum of May 11, 2014, in the Act of the proclamation of state independence of Donetsk People’s Republic, the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic from April 7, 2014, understanding of the need for the progressive development of law-making and state-building process, we affirm the historical connection of the state formations of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic.

On February 12, 1918 at the IV Congress of Soviets of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog basin based on the idea of economic integration created the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic (DKR). At the outset of building of the multinational people’s state was Fyodor Sergeyev (Artyom). The Republic comprised of the territories of Kharkov and Ekaterinoslav governorate [Dnepropetrovsk], Krivorozhye of Kherson governorate [Kherson governorate included Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson], part of the counties of Taurida governorate [Crimea and parts of southern Kherson region] and industrial areas of the Don Host Oblast.

Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic did not formally cease to exist, despite the German occupation, war and other social disasters. Its ideas lived on in the hearts and souls of millions of people.

In the late 80’s “International Donbass Movement” was created under the leadership of Dmitry Kornilov, which in 1991 raised the black-blue-and-red flag of the DKR. In March 1994 the people of Donbass called for the federal structure of the state. Federal trends were expressed at the Severodonetsk Congress in 2004, where a decision was made to hold a referendum in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts on the issue of gaining the status of autonomous republics. Such attempts to reorganize the state were declared as criminal by the Kiev authorities. Popular protest resulted in the creation of a political movement “Donetsk Republic”. The people of Donbass finally confirmed their choice at the referendum of 2014.

We, members of the People’s Council of Donetsk People’s Republic, recognizing our responsibility to the past and paving the way to the future:

– declare the continuation of the traditions of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic and declare that the state of Donetsk People’s Republic is its successor;

– call for cooperation and uniting efforts to build a federal state on a voluntary contractual bases of all the territories and lands, that were part of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic.

Source:
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/donetsk-republic-memorandum-declares.html