Militia building fortifications, dugouts in Donetsk
MOSCOW. July 7 (Interfax) - The militia is building fortifications on the Donetsk perimeter and bracing up for a siege by the Ukrainian army, Donbas militia co-leader Miroslav Rudenko said.
"We deployed roadblocks in the Donetsk suburbs a long time ago and we will definitely reinforce these roadblocks, strengthen defensive structures and build some new ones: trenches, dugouts and so on," Rudenko told Interfax on Monday.
In his opinion, the Ukrainian army intends to besiege Donetsk, cut off water and electric power supply and bombard the city from various types of armaments. The army "is afraid to enter the city," he said.
Donetsk is the political center of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and "the military center," Rudenko said. "We will be protecting it and we are confident we will be victorious," he added.
He even said the militia was prepared to launch a counter-offensive. "We will free not only our republic but also Malorossiya [Little Russia] and Kyiv or even possibly western Ukraine," Rudenko promised.
"Once Ukrainian law enforcers are driven away from the DPR, a people's tribunal will be launched on its territory to try the organizers of the army operation in the DPR and the LPR," he said.
"Everyone related to the murder of our people, those who made such appeals, who killed and raped, all of them will face the people's tribunal of the Donetsk Republic. We have no trust in The Hague Tribunal. We will have our own people's tribunal," Rudenko said.
Earlier reports said the militia retreated from Slovyansk encircled by the Ukrainian law enforcers on Saturday. Self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic defense minister Igor Strelkov said they had broken through enemy lines in Slovyansk and relocated to Donetsk. He said the unit defending Kramatorsk also left that city on his orders.
