Ukrainian Samopomich party demands dismissal of Deputy Foreign Minister over his comments about the Donbas Saturday, April 30, 2016 2:38:00 PM

The Ukrainian Samopomich party (Self-Reliance) has demanded that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko be immediately dismissed from his post, according to a statement published on the party’s official website.

“Prystaiko, in his interview with Golos Ameriki [Voice of America], said that Ukraine has to hold elections in the separatist territories of the Donbas this summer and that the current separatist leaders may be elected since they ‘exert some influence over the territories’ and that ‘the Ukrainians will have to put up with it. They [the Ukrainians] will have to find a way to co-exist with the elected separatist leaders in the parliament and the other governing bodies,’” the statement read.

The Samopomich party believes that these statements made by the Deputy Minister “do not support the interests of Ukraine, they threaten the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state.”

The party demanded that “the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vadym Prystaiko, be immediately relieved of his duties, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin, appear in the Ukrainian Parliament and confirm whether the representatives of his Ministry support the national interests of Ukraine.”

The faction noted that the Verkhovna Rada has not approved elections in the break-away regions in the Donbas.

Samopomich MPs Oleh Bereziuk, Yehor Soboliev, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Oksana Syroyid are now engaged in consultations with the US State Department, the Pentagon, the White House, members of Congress and Senators on the issue of elections in the occupied territories.

The party believes that such elections in Donetsk and Luhansk are possible only if Kiev gains full control of Ukraine’s borders.

“To conduct such elections while Russian tanks and heavy armor are deployed in these territories, while these territories are controlled by the Russian special services, while the people living there are influenced by incessant Russian propaganda, will only held the Kremlin implement its plans in the Donbas,” the party noted.

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