The Ukrainian command has issued a decree to prepare for an offensive in Donbas, confirming Kiev's intention to try to seize the southern part of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander and spokesman of the DPR Operational Command, said on Monday.
DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2018) The Ukrainian command has issued a decree to prepare for an offensive in Donbas, confirming Kiev's intention to try to seize the southern part of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander and spokesman of the DPR Operational Command, said on Monday.
On Saturday, a day after DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko died in a cafe explosion, Basurin said that Ukrainian security forces may launch an offensive in Donbas on September 14.
"Our experts are analyzing the decree of chief of staff of the occupational [Ukrainian] forces [Valeriy] Zaluzhniy, which was posted to social networks, about conducting preparatory measures and observing the secrecy regime in preparation for the offensive. According to information from the headquarters of [Ukraine's] Joint Forces Operation, this document is genuine. All this is the latest evidence of the Ukrainian regime's preparations for an attempt to occupy the south of our republic," Basurin told reporters.
On Friday, Zakharchenko and his bodyguard were killed in a bomb blast in a cafe in the center of DPR capital of Donetsk, according to the DPR authorities. Eleven others were reportedly injured.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine would not introduce martial law in the country's embattled eastern region of Donbas in the wake of Zakharchenko's assassination.
