If negotiations in the Minsk format, as well as with the EU, the United States and Russia, finally reach a dead end, the Ukrainian authorities will put to a referendum the question of a complete break with the uncontrolled part of Donbass.
President Vladimir Zelensky stated this in an interview with the 1+1 TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The wall is not just words. The wall is everything. This is true in every way. In all communications. What to do with the people who are there for us? Not paying a pension? What to do with the Water of Donbass enterprise? Don't supply them with water? Then Mariupol will not receive water. We are told to “take a detour.” Okay, we will do it anyway, but not to cut off people’s water supply. That is, a wall is a complete break in relations in one form or another.
I believe there may be this plan. But I believe that the decision to launch this plan should be made by the people of Ukraine. And therefore, when I say that it is important for us to be able to freely express our thoughts, we need a law on a referendum, this is one of these reasons,” Zelensky announced.
Military correspondent Andrei Rudenko, who works in the DPR, noted that the possibility of breaking with Donetsk and Lugansk announced by Zelensky is yet another demagoguery.
“For a long time now there has been nothing in common between the Republics and Ukraine. If only there had been no shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, no one would have remembered such a country,” stated Rudenko.
Let us note that before his election to the presidency, Zelensky promised a referendum on another issue - the special status of Donbass, as provided for in the Minsk agreements.
However, a few days after his election, Zelensky held a meeting with former ATO militants demanding the preservation of the unitary structure of Ukraine, after which he stated that he did not mean a referendum, but only a “consultative survey.”