Russia:

Ukrainian President May Use Donbass Tensions as Excuse to Call off Presidential Election

TEHRAN (defapress)- Kiev is getting ready to stage a provocation in Donbass to justify an offensive operation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday.

News ID: 74304

Date: 13 December 2018 - 16:00

"According to available information, in the coming days Kiev plans to stage an armed provocation on the line of contact in order to take advantage of the martial law declared particularly in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and launch a rapid offensive towards Mariupol to seize Azov Sea coastal areas currently controlled by Donetsk and reach the Russian border," Zaskharova said, TASS reported.

According to her, troops have been deployed to the area to carry out military tasks.

"More troops have been sent there in the past several months, which is what the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has reported about many times," the Russian diplomat noted.

"On December 1-7, OSCE monitors found 190 pieces of weapons banned by the Minsk Agreements stationed outside designated storage areas," she added.

Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko may use rising tensions in Donbass as an excuse to call off the presidential election scheduled to take place on March 31, 2019, the diplomat warned.

"According to the Kiev policymakers, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko desperately needs tensions [in Donbass] to escalate so that he can prevent his rating from collapsing, as it has been rapidly declining," Zakharova said, adding, "In addition, rising tensions in Donbass will provide Poroshenko with an excuse to extend martial law and even call off the presidential election".

Zakharova also said the United States encourages schismatic steps by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and Poroshenko against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to the diplomat, US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback is actively meddling in Ukraine’s ecclesiastical affairs.

"He is imposing an autocephaly, which is alien to millions of believers, encouraging Poroshenko’s and the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s schismatic steps," she added.

"We realize what is behind Mr. Brownback’s actions and that part of the American diplomacy, which deals with these issues. This is an attempt to divide the peoples of Russia and Ukraine spiritually. Apparently, from their point of view, it would be best to play them off against each other on religious grounds as well. Those who resist will be either interrogated by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and get prison terms or will be sanctioned by the US," Zakharova stated.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo earlier said he had placed several countries, including Russia, on a "Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom". Commenting on the move, Brownback noted that the US administration could impose sanctions on Russia in the future under the pretext of ensuring religious freedom around the world.

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