Ukrainian official: Leaflets calling for unification with DPR appeared in separatist-held Luhansk
In the separatist-controlled Luhansk, leaflets were distributed with appeals to unite with the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) into a single republic, as reported by the Deputy Chairman of the Luhansk civil-military administration, Yuriy Klimenko, on 112 Ukraine.
"The people are slowly being prepared for such unification, the next step will be the dissemination of these appeals in the media in the occupied territories," Klimenko said.
He is convinced that Russia will benefit from this, because now there are very different views on the future of the so-called republics in the DPR and LPR.
"In the occupied Luhansk region, they do not exclude unification with Ukraine, whereas in the Donetsk region they are categorically against it," Klimenko said.
If such unification occurs, it will be a gross violation of the Minsk Agreements and the format of the negotiations will have to be changed, the deputy head of the civil-military administration notes.
The change of power in LPR occurred after a conflict between the former head of the unrecognized republic, Igor Plotnitsky, and the former head of the Interior Ministry, Igor Kornet, whom Plotnitsky had dismissed the day before. In response to Plotnitsky’s actions on November 21, military equipment and armed individuals in camouflage uniforms without insignia appeared on the streets of central Luhansk. The police, reporting to Kornet, detained the leadership of the General Prosecutor's Office of the LPR, as well as acting LPR Prosecutor General Vitaliy Podobry and head of the LPR Prosecutor General's Office Sergei Rakhno. Plotnitsky left Novorossiysk on November 23 for Moscow, where he has sought support. However, an RBC source close to the Vladislav Surkov, who is "supervising" Ukraine and the unrecognized republics, has said that the Kremlin took Kornet’s side in the conflict with Plotnitsky, which began in 2015. As a result, Plotnitsky was appointed as the commissioner for the fulfillment of the terms of the Minsk agreements on November 24.