Frontron Governor

Gennady Moskal leads the Lugansk region from Severodonetsk, promising citizens of the coming winter, heat and water

The capital of the Lugansk region was temporarily transferred from the village of Svatovo to Severodonetsk, since the regional center was captured by separatists. On September 18, Gennady Moskal, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, supporter of Petro Poroshenko, and retired police general, was appointed head of the regional administration. In the late 1990s, he led the Crimean police, in the 2000s he headed the regional administrations of Transcarpathian and Lugansk regions. In his current post, he changed the activist of the Fatherland party to Irina Verigin .

- I have already been working in this position for a week, in Severodonetsk, on September 22, the regional state administration has been deployed. Everything goes fine, in the working environment. If even before the end there was a ceasefire, it would be even better. We are preparing for the winter, for the launch of enterprises, we restore what was fired, blown up, destroyed - bridges, roads, administrative and residential buildings. Severodonetsk was under occupation. We return the territory that is controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, to normal life.

- You are the governor of that part of the Luhansk region that the Ukrainian army controls. Do you have any contacts with the separatists?

- How can I contact the separatists if Ukraine proclaimed the Lugansk People’s Republic with a terrorist organization? Do you want me to contact terrorists and then sit in the Investigative SBU isolator? The international contact group works in Minsk, under the auspices of the OSCE. There are international organizations for such contacts, and if there are any questions, we turn to them, and they, in turn, are in contact with both separatists and with us. A lot of household questions arise. Well, for example, - all archives remained in Lugansk. Here the person lost his birth certificate and wants him to be given a duplicate. How do we give him a duplicate if the archives are in Lugansk?

How can I contact the separatists if Ukraine proclaimed the Lugansk People’s Republic with a terrorist organization?

- You mentioned that the ceasefire agreement is not fully respected. Does this mean that in the Luhansk region there are still territories where the demarcation line between the separatists and the Ukrainian authorities has not been established, and there are still some kind of clashes?

- All lines of contact are known, and the question is that the comrades on the other side imagined themselves to be large bosses, there is no single leadership of armed groups. That is, they, apparently, are told, but it does not reach them that it is time to stop shooting. They have no centralized army. The whole army stopped the war, and the National Guard, and volunteer formations. And on the other side-the Cossacks have his own chieftain, the militias have his own, such and such an army of the LPR ... They arrange a showdown there, instead of listening to the OSCE or watching TV. Half of them, I think, did not at all see the TV in life and did not have it at home ... They need to work with them, and even if international observers from the OSCE - if they took up this work - let them carry it out, let them bring to the attention that a decision was made to cease.

- Your area is torn into two parts. Those citizens of Ukraine who live in the territory under the control of separatist formations have the opportunity to move throughout the region, is the Ukrainian social system is now being applied? Or is it cut off?

Every day, people come and come from Lugansk and other occupied territories, withdraw money at ATMs, buy products because we have a choice of goods, and a good choice. Or bring some of their products to the bazaars. We do not have any restrictions. These are citizens of Ukraine, how can we limit them to movement?

- According to the decree of the Ukrainian government, these citizens can issue or receive all the payments due to them by coming here, we have no boundaries. No one pays a pension on the other side - they say that they do not recognize any Ukrainian laws. Any person can register in any branch of the Pension Fund of Ukraine, in the territory of any region, he is sent to the bank, a plastic card is issued to him in the bank and his pension is thrown off on the card. And where he receives money - this is the business of every person. The same applies to social benefits. Every day, people come and come from Lugansk and other occupied territories, withdraw money at ATMs, buy products because we have a choice of goods, and a good choice. Or bring some of their products to the bazaars. We do not have any restrictions. These are citizens of Ukraine, how can we limit them to movement? If there is a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, it is missed. Yes, we do not have visa control with the Russian Federation, and if a person has a passport of a Russian citizen, he can also calmly come. Of course, there are checkpoints so that the faces of the weapon do not penetrate, gangs and so on do not come. Citizens come - some to relatives, some for products, many withdraw money at ATMs, because they do not work there. Go through Severodonetsk - I think that about every fifth will be from the other side controlled by the LPR.

- How many refugees are there in the territory of the Lugansk region?

-Every day the picture is changing, someone leaves, someone comes. Everything is placed, no one lives on the street and no one lives in tents. For different holiday homes, in hostels, hotels, we placed people. Whoever wants to go home is leaving. There are a lot of volunteers in the region, the foreigner helps us. But you incorrectly said - these are not refugees, these are forced immigrants, they live on their own land, in their country. It’s just because of the fact that military operations began, they were forced to leave their homes, saving life and property. If the situation is stabilized in their city, if light, water, gas are appearing, they return. If the house is destroyed and nowhere to return, they remain. Every morning they give us new statistics.

- Winter in the Luhansk region will be difficult?

- It will not be difficult for us, we are ready for winter. We will have warmth, we will have gas, we will have light, water. And how the LPR is preparing for winter - this is not interested in me.

- You are very close to the zone of former military operations ...

- ... Yes, Severodonetsk in the frontline zone is located if anyone releases the rocket, it will reach us. But, thank God, we are still peaceful, calm, people are engaged in ordinary life, walk the streets. Full of people in cafes, in bars, in stores. All shops work, hotels work, city transport travels, all government agencies work, we collect the entire management structure in Severodonetsk, while the city is a temporary regional center. And Lugansk - under the occupation. I do not know to what extent the administrative buildings are destroyed there.

-You are a police lieutenant general, you have extensive experience in combating organized crime, you headed the Crimean police. Do you understand how the problem with self -proclaimed republics will be solved?

“What do you want me to take the machine gun and go there to shoot everyone there?” ( Laughs.) I do not have such powers. And I am not going to fight the separatists armed or some other way. I am engaged in the state administration of territory, which is controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. For special operations, we have the relevant authorities. I am a civil servant, I have no weapon, even a penknife.

But I will tell you the main thing: you need to solve a crisis peacefully, only peacefully. I am from the party of the world, I am not from the party of war. I once did not know in detail who the Sunnis are and who are Shiites, but I understood that they are killing each other, some kind of centuries-old contradiction was laid. When the Protestants killed Catholics or vice versa, the contradictions also affected, and not momentary, but those that have a centenary history. But when the Orthodox kill the Orthodox - this is what I can not understand! For what? For the tongue? What language? This is a far -fetched problem.

When in Soviet times in educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs taught me forensic science, they said: this type of face is European. All of us are those who live in Russia, and those who live in Ukraine have a European type of face. I am now solving issues of economic, managerial, administrative and the like. But I clearly understand: if we kill each other, having the same type of face and being Orthodox, then, probably, we have gone crazy or at least go slowly crazy. Why is the "not killed" forgotten today by clergy and believers? We must sit down, under the auspices of international organizations, but under what you want - and achieve the world. Why are Ukrainians kill Russians, Russians of Ukrainians? For what?! I can't understand why!

- At one time, you have repeatedly been a guest of Russian television shows ...

- Yes, I was invited by the ORT channel, the Politics program. And today there are no offers from Moscow. I understand that I am an undesirable person in Moscow, because I say what I think, and, probably, many do not like it. Or today we need politicians who would praise military operations and pushed people to a fratricidal war, ” Gennady Moskal, chairman of the Lugansk Regional State Administration, said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

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  Andrey Shary

  I.O. Regional Director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for Russian -Sound Content

  Andrey Shary on Facebook

  Sharya@rferl.org