The Ukrainian authorities may launch an offensive in Donbas to have a pretext to introduce martial law in parts of the country and sabotage the 2019 presidential election, the deputy commander of the Operational Command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, said on Monday.
DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2018) The Ukrainian authorities may launch an offensive in Donbas to have a pretext to introduce martial law in parts of the country and sabotage the 2019 presidential election, the deputy commander of the Operational Command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, said on Monday.
According to Basurin, the Ukrainian military authorities are spreading false information about a large number of ceasefire violations in Donbas in order to show the voters and the international community that the conflict has never stopped, and they will go as far as launching an offensive in Donbas to substantiate their claims and have a pretext to declare martial law in some regions.
"The introduction of the martial law in one of Ukraine's regions will automatically cancel the electoral campaign and as a result will thwart the March 2019 election in the country," the spokesman said.
The armed conflict between Kiev and the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk broke out in 2014 following the overthrow of then President Viktor Yanukovych and the republics' refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the new government. The Normandy Four group comprising France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine has been trying to reconcile the two sides and reached a ceasefire agreement in 2015, however, both parties have repeatedly accused each other of breaching the truce.
