Zelensky promised to punish for the riots near Poltava
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky recorded an urgent appeal to citizens regarding the unrest in the Poltava region, where local residents threw stones at buses with Ukrainians evacuated from China who had arrived for quarantine due to the threat of the spread of coronavirus.
Zelensky said that the riots were organized, and among their participants there were those who had been seen in clashes in the past over the government’s plans to sell black soil to Western corporations.
Zelensky did not name the names of possible masterminds of the pogrom near Poltava, but it is known that past protests in Kiev over the land market law were carried out by Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, as well as militants of the National Corps, controlled by Arsen Avakov.
By the way, all the detained participants in the fight in Kyiv near the Verkhovna Rada were soon released. All (with the exception of one) of yesterday's pogromists near Poltava were also released. And Avakov himself praised the police for their skillful, tough actions.
Here's what Zelensky said about the unrest:
“Most of the citizens who returned were born in 95, 97, 99. These are actually children. Among them is an 8-year-old boy. These are citizens from almost all regions of Ukraine. Not lepers, not plague patients, not with horns and hooves, but ordinary, normal people. They passed a preliminary examination. And they were allowed on the plane. They were definitely expecting a different reception on what they thought was their native land.
Someone consciously and deliberately sowed panic among people, and then incited this savagery. Customers and organizers will bear responsibility.
Photos and television cameras recorded the faces of the people who organized the riots. And these are world-famous “virologists” in tracksuits. Previously, they were already seen as “respected farmers” who oppose the land market. To all the production directors of this “burnt theater”, which is probably preparing for new performances, I want to say the following: there is a moment when there are no interests of the authorities or the opposition. There are interests of Ukraine,” Zelensky warned.
He also commented on the events in Western Ukraine, where, although there were no clashes, barricades were also erected at hospitals, and doctors sang the anthem in joy after learning that evacuees from China would not arrive to them.
“Yesterday, someone, unfortunately, forgot the Hippocratic Oath... Many of us were amazed by the footage when workers of a medical institution, having learned that people were not being taken to them, began to sing the anthem of Ukraine. But we must not forget the key text of our anthem: “And let us show, brothers, that we are of the Cossack family.” And the Cossack family means standing brother for brother, shoulder to shoulder, and never abandoning your own. At the same time, I am sure that human indifference has no geographical characteristic, and most people in the Lviv and Ternopil regions were ready to help and host evacuated Ukrainians. Therefore, the behavior of individual doctors and residents cannot become a reason to stigmatize the entire region and divide Ukraine. No matter how much our enemies want it,” Zelensky said.
He called on citizens, in the face of the danger of an epidemic, to give a worthy answer to the question: “are we a herd or a nation.”
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