"Donetsk People's Republic" ignores the elections of the President of Ukraine

The leaders of the self -proclaimed "Donetsk People’s Republic" will not hold the elections of the country's presidential elections in this region on May 25. This was reported by ITAR-TASS by the co-chair of the Presidium of the Republic Denis Pushilin.

"As for the presidential election - of course, we will ignore them. How can we participate in the elections that actually happen to our neighbors, and not with us? Is it wrong, in fact, in the current situation it is impossible to choose the president who would arrange both the West and East of the country," he said.

Speaking about presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev, Pushilin said that the Donetsk region did not consider him his representative. "We have nothing against Tsarev, but he does not represent our interests and cannot represent," he said.

He said that the Donetsk region will continue to pay taxes to the Kyiv authorities before the referendum. "Kyiv complies with its obligations to pay pensions and benefits and we comply with tax transfer obligations. If suddenly they stopped paying pensions, as some radical politicians stated, we would also act more radically," said the co -chairman of the presidium.

Touching upon the topic of abductions, he said that, according to his information, the security service of Ukraine only in Donetsk "abducted at least 10 supporters of the country's federalization" and holds them in the Lukyanovsky pre -trial detention center of Kyiv.

"Literally last Friday, our activist Leonid Baranov was abducted by the Kyiv SBU and taken to Lukyanovskoye pre -trial detention center, he was kept alone. Before that, under similar circumstances, Alexei Belousov was abducted. There are 10 of our activists, but there are also those people that we do not know about," Pushilin said. Among those who are in the Lukyanovsky pre -trial detention center, he said, there is the first People’s Governor of the Donetsk region Pavel Gubarev.

Pushilin also emphasized that there are no Russian troops in the region. “Although it would be easier with them, they would accelerate the organization of a referendum and ensure its stay in the legal field,” he suggested. “So far, all rumors about the Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are information emissions from Kyiv,” he added.

In early April, in Donetsk, as in a number of other cities of southeast of Ukraine, a wave of pro-Russian actions was held. Their participants seized the regional administration and proclaimed the "Donetsk People’s Republic." The captures of buildings (administrations and departments of law enforcement agencies) were also held in other settlements of the Donetsk region, in particular in Slavyansk.

The Ukrainian authorities in response announced the conduct of an anti -terrorist operation in the Donetsk region, which continues to this day. They have not yet been able to suppress the protest movement.