Luhansk regional council chief calls for end to security operation
KYIV. May 22 (Interfax) - Chairman of the Luhansk regional council Valeriy Holenko has asked the country's government to stop the antiterrorist operation (ATO) in the eastern regions.
"On behalf of the people of the Luhansk region, I hereby demand that the country's government and ATO coordinators stop the war immediately! Stop the fratricide and bloodshed!" Holenko said in a statement posted on the regional council's website on Thursday.
The operation in the Lysychansk area is "essentially a war against your own people," he said.
The ATO held ahead of the presidential election is not coincidental, Holenko said. "It is clear that prior to the presidential election someone is very eager to boast military victories and thus staged the horrendous spectacle. Except that on the 'stage' we have live people, not actors! And they die in earnest! And together with them dies the hope for a possibility of a civil resolution of the conflict. Ukraine itself is dying," the regional council chairman said.
The nationwide roundtables on national unity are a farce, he also said.
"Like I said already, all these roundtables of national accord are a decoration and farce organized solely for a pretty TV picture. Unfortunately, this morning this certainty proved right. When a peace memorandum is signed for television cameras, while in reality troops and heavy vehicles are being sent against civilians, it is immediately clear what is false and what the true goals are of those who give orders," Holenko said.
He urged his fellow citizens not to take part in crimes organized by politicians: "Nobody's presidential ambitions are worth dying for."