Unknown persons tried to capture the Donbas blockade activists’ redoubt
On the 28th of February, unknown persons stormed two redoubts of the Donbas blockade in the Donetsk region: the “16 volunteer battalion” in Kryvyi Torets and “Zaporizhia” in Bakhmut [at the end of January, war veterans in Eastern Ukraine blocked several railway crossings, demanding that Ukrainian prisoners in the Donbas be freed and trade with separatists halted]. The blockade Headquarters posted on its Facebook page about the attacks on the redoubts.
The blockade Headquarters claims that the attackers acted according to a pre-planned scenario, identically at both redoubts.
“At first a television appeared, and then groups of “grandmothers” with pleas to stop the blockade. And then under the cover of “grandmothers” there was an attempt at a forceful capture of the redoubt by trained groups of titushek [this is the term used in Ukraine for young people who are covertly used for forceful provocation]. Fire engines and ambulances drove to the sites of the incident in advance. Police did not intervene in the incident,” the Headquarters’ post states.
Bakhmut managed to escape the forceful opposition. In Kryvyi Torets, however, the few blockade activists were attacked by 50 thugs, who wanted to capture the redoubt and a train with coal, blocked on the rails. The Headquarters reports three wounded activists (a fracture, a traumatic head injury and a stab wound). The attackers backed down only when people from other redoubts came to assist the blockade activists.
The blockade Headquarters accuses the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Donetsk police of provocation. The goal of the “provocateurs” is “to force the redoubt garrisons to use weapons for self-defense, in order to attain the moral right to forcefully crack down on the redoubt”.
The identity of the attackers has not been established. However, the blockade Headquarters believes that they were hired by “one of Akhmetov and Nusenkis’ security firms”. There have already been arrests after the attack on the redoubt. Vyacheslav Abroskin, chief of police in the Donetsk region, reported that the police have arrested 37 people who came into contact with the blockade participants.
The attack on the redoubt started during a speech by Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in the Cabinet of Ministers. He asked the anti-terrorist center to give “authority to law enforcement to restore the situation”.
“The liberalism of our government knows no limits. A month of liberal negotiations with the initiators of this blockade… leads to nothing. A decision must be made,” Avakov said at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs accused Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, and Oleh Berezyuk, head of the “Samopomich” party, of organizing the blockade, and he also holds them responsible for its consequences.
Later, on his Facebook page, Arsen Avakov criticized the attempt to storm the blockade, as well as the actual blocking of the railway crossings. The minister insists on a total ban on the exchange of goods, aside from goods of “critical importance” which provide the metallurgy and energy of Ukraine. He proposes that the Ukrainian Military Command in Anti-terrorist center be given control over the flow of goods.
Avakov also assured that he did not have a forceful crackdown on the blockade in mind when he asked for “authority to restore the situation”.
“To provide the order worked out in the Anti-terrorist center does not mean going with automatic rifles against your own citizens,” the Minister of Internal Affairs wrote.
Earlier, Boris Gryzlov, the Russian representative in the Tripartite Liaison Group to resolve the Donbas conflict, threatened Ukraine with “reciprocal measures” on account of the Donbas blockade. He pointed out that the Minsk agreements formalized Ukraine’s obligation to support the socio-economic development of the Donbas.
“In reality we are observing an expanding blockade of transportation. Such actions, actually directed towards economic and social isolation, will inevitably lead to reciprocal measures,” Gryzlov stated.