Sergey Taruta's view on the current situation in Donetsk

Given the recent events taking place in the Donetsk Regional Council, ZN.ua, considered it important to present to the readership Sergey Taruta's view on the current situation. Sergey Taruta is the President of the Board of Directors of ISD and was recently appointed governor of Donetsk region. At the moment of the interview, Mr Taruta was still in Kyiv in the Cabinet of Ministers building. Taruta gave a brief characterisation of the current events. ZN.UA gave the exclusive rights to ND to publish the interview simultaneously.

- The great majority of Donbass citizens are in favour of Ukraine's territorial integrity and friendship with Russia. However, they are not prepared to pay the price of friendship, which is being proposed by Russia today. What is going on now needs to be reigned in and we can only think of a peaceful scenario. However, there are certain radical groups, which according to existing information, are being sponsored by Russian structures. These people have been reported to be in the circles of a radical movement's leader who has declared himself the governor of Donetsk region. Yesterday, he was also seen with the representatives of Russian Federation's Duma. The self-proclaimed governor scenario is a method of power usurpation that is being practiced in a number of Ukraine's regions in the South East. For example, in Luhansk and Odessa. Those who are part of this strategy forcefully enter government buildings whilst sessions are in process and under the threat of life force representatives to pass decisions that either support Russian intervention or the split of our country.

- How can you oppose these acts?

- Since there is no legitimate will of the people for such decisions, it is important for the authors of such actions to create the "right" picture and to also secure the "right" kind of decision by force. They are trying to show that the documents signed under gun point and street protests, which are to a large degree artificially organised, represent the will of the Donetsk region. However, such decisions cannot receive any further support. We will counteract the decisions of the Donetsk Regional Council that were provoked through force in court with the exception of one decision that was taken legitimately, namely regarding the election of the head of the regional council, Mr Shishatsky. All the rest - I am absolutely sure - will be revoked. And then we will need the help of our security forces, who have the competency to asses the actions of extremists and their leaders. There is no name for these groups other than extremists. I will try to be politically correct but many of the involved people are not in their right mind. In fact, they have not been in their right mind since yesterday. According to the information of Ukraine's security forces, there were groups of people participating in protests who have been brought from Russia via the Russian-Ukrainian border. It is precisely them who are providing the "support" to these supposed leaders of extremist movements. Of course, there are people in Ukraine who support these actions without any material interests or helped by intoxication. However, their numbers are very small. Those who have devised these strategies are trying to caricature the actions of Maidan. However, between the current aggressive protests and Maidan, there exists at least one major difference, which in fact signals the doom of current actions: Maidan was sincerely supported by a great number of the general population. Maidan was an example of civil society activism, self-organisation, self-sacrifice and self-sustainability. In Donbass, the general population does not support the newly founded extremist movement. Or to be more precise, the "radicals" do not have the support amongst the ordinary citizens. The engine of the radical movement is working on the back of the bank accounts of foreign nationals and citizens who were paid for their participation.

- In Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, there are lines of buses with Russian number plates…

- Yes, this is all part of the above-described strategy. These are the same faces that are currently being moved from Russia to the south-east of Ukraine. What needs to happen is the closing of the border for those individuals who are arriving to Ukraine to topple our government structures - there is no other way of identifying their actions. Many of these people are armed. The questions is where do they get their arms, in Ukraine or on the other side of the border? I don't have the answer. The answer must be found by our security forces.
The closing of borders should not stop all activities. Goods and peaceful individuals should be able to cross the border without any problems. However, mass movements of people who are sent in with the mission to topple our government structures need to be prohibited. I would also recommend that those who are making their way back to Russia are checked for holding arms. Today, people who are being sent to Ukraine are the main cause of the destabilisation in the south-east of Ukraine. At the same time, I am absolutely certain that the south-east of Ukraine in its greatest majority is in support of a united Ukraine. Order and justice will be restored.

- Who are you planning to rely on in bringing back order if today the city police in Donetsk let the "protestors" into the building of the Donetsk Regional Council?

- The police is afraid of bloodshed triggered by the actions that the self-elected governor and his group are ready to take. As a result, the police has to measure its own strength and to assess the best way to secure the well-being of those who are in the building. The police is being provoked to take radical measures, and the maximum that they can do in the current situation is to refrain from those measures. Those who are plotting this scenario will not reach their aim. The decisions that are passed under such circumstances would be revoked by any court. I think that we will enter the legal field very soon, and I hope that the police won't be the main means of normalising the situation.

- When there was a discussion on appointing Ukraine's main business people as governors, there was talk of Rinat Akhmetov becoming the head of Donetsk's Regional Council. However, according to ZN.UA, he rejected the proposal while still offering help. Are you counting on Akhmetov?

- I am absolutely certain of his support and I am counting on his help because we are united by the same goal - peace, unity and flourishing of Donbass. I have had numerous conversations with Rinat Akhmetov about the need to coordinate actions on behalf of large and medium business and all public organisations, so that the people of Donetsk would quickly feel the tide of changes in our country. I am sure that I can rely on Akhmetov.

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Participants in a pro-Russia rally have seized the building of the regional state administration in Donetsk.
People began gathering outside the administration building in the morning, as the regional council was holding an extraordinary session to elect a new chairman. The secret ballot results incurred displeasure in the demonstrators, who were demanding to appoint Donbass People's Self-Defence leader Pavlo Hubarev. After that the activists began storming the building. The demonstrators broke the metal fence, used it as a ladder, and penetrated the administration building through a smashed window. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Donetsk Regional Council has dismissed Andrii Fedoruk from the post of chairman of the Regional Council and appointed ex-Governor Andrii Shyshatskyi instead. Some 10,000 anti-government protesters on March 1 in Lenina Square in Donetsk pronounced no-confidence in Shyshatskyi and elected Hubarev instead.