DONETSK, 16 June (BelTA) – I made a decision to protect the rights of citizens of the Donetsk People's Republic after the maidan in Kiev, DPR ombudsman for human rights Daria Morozova told the media in Donetsk, BelTA has learned.
"I come from Makeevka. When the war broke out, I was 25 years old. For me, it all started with the maidan, with the footage of brutal mistreatment of the Berkut riot police. After that, it became clear that this would not end with Kiev and would spill over to our lands. Then there was the decision to abolish the regional status of the Russian language. It prompted many people to take to the streets in March-April 2014. We wanted the politicians who came to power in Kiev as a result of an coup d'état to talk to Donbass and hear us. Instead, they declared an anti-terrorist operation in Donbass. First I went to rallies, then I began to engage in the exchange of POWs, receive refugees and, in principle, defend the rights of our citizens,” Daria Morozova told her story.
She noted that initially the exchange of POWs took place on a voluntary basis. "In 2014, there were negotiators and volunteers from the Ukrainian side. After the Minsk memorandum, we were able to agree on the first official exchange. Ukraine fielded special negotiators with whom we exchanged lists and exchanged POWs according to them. Unfortunately, in 2017 Ukraine completely blocked this process and politicized it. After that, exchanges happened only when it was beneficial to the Ukrainian side," Daria Morozova emphasized.
In her opinion, Ukrainian politicians are absolutely cynical people. For the seven years of the Minsk negotiations they ignored interests of their citizens. "They did not want the war to end. They were not going to negotiate with us. It seemed that they would pick up very heartless people for the negotiations in Minsk. Once I said to them that a pregnant woman died. To this a Ukrainian negotiator replied: "Good riddance. It's good that the children of Donbass are dying." This happened during the negotiations in the subgroup for humanitarian affairs. Do you think it is possible to negotiate with such people? What solutions do they bring to Kiev for their president? From the very start, they were not in the mood for a dialogue with us and avoided it all these years," the DPR ombudsman concluded.
