Separatist leaders threaten Ukraine with the nationalization of companies because of the trade blockade
On the 27th of February, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, leaders of the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Ukraine, sent an ultimatum to Kyiv. If on the Ukrainian side the blockade of the Donbas [which was started by war veterans in Eastern Ukraine with the goal of freeing Ukrainian prisoners and putting an end to trade with the separatists] continues, the separatist leaders will take control of the companies under Ukrainian jurisdiction which are in the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily not controlled by Kyiv. This was reported by the separatist site Donetsk News Agency.
“We are forced to announce that if by 00:00 on Wednesday (1 March 2017) the blockade is not removed, we will introduce external management on all companies in Ukraine’s jurisdiction that operate in the DPR and LPR. We will stop sending coal to Ukraine. There are no options for shipping coal, no payment schemes. We will restructure all production processes and direct them at the Russian market and other countries. This was one of our first promises at the time our republic was declared,” the separatist leaders’ announcement states.
The separatist leaders also stated that the transport blockade of the Donbas has resulted in the disruption of the work of many enterprises in the region, which contradicts the spirit and the letter of the Minsk agreements, according to the ringleaders of the separatist “republics”.
Anatoly Vinogradsky, coordinator of the Donbas blockade Headquarters, commented on this ultimatum on his Facebook page.
“There are no Ukrainian companies in the occupied territories, everyone who works there is collaborating with the separatists! This is a serious crime against Ukraine, and it doesn’t matter what price they pay as reductions in the budget. Ukraine’s independence and the lives of Her sons and daughters are priceless… We need a total blockade not only of the east, but also of their blind trusts, for looting the subsoil and plundering communities,” Vinogradsky wrote.
Semen Semenchenko, MP and one of the organizers of the trade blockade, also reacted to Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky’s ultimatum.
“Firstly, they can’t stop sending the occupants’ coal, because it has already been stopped by volunteers and activists. Secondly, the next time traitor-officials talk about something like “controlled companies in the uncontrolled territories,” they must be reminded of the “nationalization” in the Plotnitsky-Zakharchenko style,” Semenchenko wrote on Facebook. The parliamentarian is certain that the panicky statements of the separatist republic leaders is better evidence of the blow dealt by the blockade to their pockets.
Heorhiy Tuka, Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories, called the ultimatum an “attempt to frighten” Ukraine.
“These are systemically important enterprises which are involved in vertically integrated companies and also as separately held units in the production chain. If this chain is broken, finding a way to sell the products manufactured by these companies, in order to support their livelihood, is not easy at all. And these companies’ products are far from in demand in Russia. If we’re talking about the same mines where the coal is piled up to the ceiling and they don’t know where to put it, they will close the mines. So let them tell themselves whatever they like. I don’t believe it,” the minister said.
Tuka is convinced that the authorities will manage to resolve the matter of the blockade.
“They put pressure on us at the start of the heating season, when 45 people held that side of the blockade, and not one factory came over into Ukrainian territory. We sorted out that situation, and I think that it will be the same now too,” the official resumed.
In Russia, Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the separatist leaders’ statements. He said that the transport blockade of the Donbas territories not controlled by Kyiv is destabilizing the situation and interfering with the process of resolving the conflict and implementing the Minsk agreements.
“In the present case, Kyiv’s inability or unwillingness to get rid of this blockade is baffling,” Peskov emphasized.
The volunteer Miroslav Gai, said in a comment on Obozrevatel who the ultimatum is directed at:
“Separatist administration has been placed on these companies anyway. But since they actually belong to our oligarchs, this threat is more likely directed at them. You said we had an agreement. Get a move on and deal with the blockade. The separatists have no other means of subsistence aside from Russian subsidies and these companies which give people the opportunity to work somehow, and bring in some money for the militants’ budget,” Gai explained.
He also suggested that if the blockade is prolonged, the population of the uncontrolled territories will go on strike.
Andriy Rymaruk, a veteran of the war in the Donbas, connected the separatists’ ultimatum with a recent visit of MP Nadiya Savchenko to DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic).
“Once again they [the separatists] are making up stories. Although it is clear that if coal does not leave that side, the militants’ ringleaders won’t earn money from it, and this is making them nervous. But we’re talking about a domestic demand for coal, it is particularly redundant to our population, because the heating season will soon end,” Rymaruk noted.