Novorossiya goes on the offensive on territory controlled by Kyiv (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Kyiv - Donetsk - Kyiv, May 25 (Navigator, Vladimir Raichenko) - A congress of people's representatives of the South-East was held in Donetsk on Saturday, establishing the socio-political movement "People's Front", which intends to fight for the creation of New Russia, which will unite not only Donetsk and Lugansk, but also the regions of the South-East of Ukraine, today controlled by official Kyiv.
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The forum was attended by 145 delegates not only from Donetsk and Lugansk, but also from Kharkov, Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Odessa. Not everyone was able to get there, and many had to make considerable efforts to get through the barriers from the checkpoints of the Ukrainian security forces.
The Donetsk Shakhtar Plaza hotel was chosen as the venue for the congress, opposite the main football arena of Donetsk, where Rinat Akhmetov’s attempt to demonstrate the alleged reluctance of his fellow countrymen to secede from Ukraine recently ended in failure.
The congress was guarded by DPR militias, including fighters from the Donetsk Vostok battalion, which recently battered the pro-government Donbass unit in a fierce battle.
Konstantin Dolgov, a public activist from Kharkov, opened the forum as a moderator.
“There is no single leader among us,” Denis Pushilin, one of the co-chairs of the DPR, gives the floor. “Everyone contributed to our small victories, one of which was the holding of the referendum on May 11.”
Here one of the leaders of Donbass is clearly being modest. The referendum, no matter how anyone treated it, no matter what claims regarding legitimacy and legal viability they put forward, became a resounding success and a real shock for Kyiv, where, it seems, they simply did not expect such significant results against the backdrop of a very high turnout. You can talk as much as you like about the “lies of the Russian media”, about “falsifications and fraud”, but a number of the most influential Western media in their reports on the results of the referendum were forced to admit that the majority of Donbass residents are far from sympathizing with the Kyiv authorities, otherwise “ not called a junta here, and quite consciously voted for the republics.
“In Lugansk and Donetsk, ordinary people rose up and forced themselves to be taken into account,” noted Oleg Tsarev, formally still a current people’s deputy of Ukraine. “It was they who created two new states, and I am sure that we will build even more and unite it all into a big country.”
The last phrase of Oleg Tsarev is the key to understanding the strategic objectives of the new movement. We are talking not just about the creation of a political force localized by the borders of the self-proclaimed republics, but, as mentioned above, about a significant expansion of the geography of its activities into the territory of historical Novorossiya.
It must be said that the somewhat crude text of the draft Popular Front Manifesto distributed to the delegates became the reason for serious discussion. For example, representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk said that the call for a boycott of the presidential elections in Ukraine, in their opinion, makes no sense for the independent DPR and LPR. Others categorically rejected the possibility of new entities entering the Ukrainian legal field.
As a result, an amendment was adopted that satisfied everyone, the essence of which is that both the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, as independent entities, have the right to unite in the future within the framework of the new integration project Novorossiya, which, in addition to the DPR and LPR, will include the current Odessa, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. But how realistic is this path? And isn't it fraught with even more blood?
“If the Kyiv authorities still have common sense, then we propose to sit down at the negotiating table, withdraw troops and recognize our people’s republics,” Pavel Gubarev, who became one of the initiators of the Donetsk protests, offered his option. “And then the Ukrainian authorities must create legislative conditions for holding referendums on the independence of other regions.”
Probably, for some, Gubarev’s proposal will seem like an unacceptable ultimatum, but for others, it will seem like an appeal to democratic procedure and a way to stop the bloodshed.
“We saw that the congress was not easy, there was quite a heated discussion,” one of the co-chairs of the Popular Front, the leader of the public organization “Slavic Guard” Vladimir Rogov from Zaporozhye, commented to Navigator on the results of the congress. – This only indicates that everything comes from below, and not according to some directive instructions. In the souls of each of us, the Novorossiya project has already matured. And now its practical implementation begins.”
But Oleg Tsarev does not exclude a more global option. “The main goal of our movement today is the liberation of all of Ukraine from the Nazis, from whom people suffer not only in the East, but also in the Center and in the West,” the politician told Navigator.
The implementation of the Novorossiya project, and even more so the liberation of all, as Oleg Tsarev says, of Ukraine today may seem like a utopia. But let’s not forget that just a couple of years ago, during Euro 2012, residents of Donetsk went to cheer for the Ukrainian football team under blue and yellow flags, and opinion polls showed the readiness of these people to live as part of a united Ukraine. Today, during his XNUMX-hour stay in Donetsk, the Navigator correspondent did not see the Ukrainian banner at any institution.
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