ODESSA – The Autonomous People’s Republic of Donetsk has a new prime minister, and he is a “Russian”. Better, Vitali Khotsenko is a young Ukrainian from Dnipro who trained at the Moscow State University (Limonosov) and worked at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. On the conquered territories in Ukraine Vladimir Putin, which recognized the two separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk on the eve of the invasion, wants to hurry. As one of his “authoritative members” of the government said to the newspaper Izvestjia, for Moscow, Crimea and the two Donbass regions are a closed question. The invading army also feels victory on the ground close and so the process of annexation is now set in motion to be completed in September with a referendum (controlled by the Kremlin).
The change of government, formalized yesterday, takes place under the direction of Denis Pushilin, since 2018 president and head of the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (Dpr), the son of metalworkers who entered politics following the organization of a pyramid scam and the bankruptcy of the company for which he had worked. Pushilin has been planning the annexation of all eastern Ukraine to Moscow since 2014, when he conceived a potential federation between the six regions to the right of the Dnipro River: he had to set aside the hypothesis for the outbreak of the war in the Donbass. TO Republic on March 6, the president of the Democratic Party said: “We have never considered ourselves part of Ukraine”.
The Russians want to take Severodonetsk by 10 June. The Ukrainian army: “Nobody here gives up”
by our correspondent Corrado Zunino
The new prime minister, Vitali Khotsenko, is 36 years old and, after graduating from Moscow in Sociology, he specialized in Economics (in Singapore), then in Law and Public Administration. The short military career led him to the rank of lieutenant and, therefore, to an entry into Russian politics and administration within the Federation. His most important position to date has been that of director of the Department of Industrial Policies at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Moscow. His meeting with Donbass took place in 2020, when he joined the President of the People’s Council Volodymyr Bidyovka. Now, appointed prime minister while war rages on the streets, he will have to form a new government appreciated by Putin.
The change wears out without apparent pain. To the outgoing and resigning premier, Alexander Ananchenkoa native of the region, Pushilin has offered the presidency of Donetsk Technologies State Corporation.
We see, the path of annexation-recognition of Eastern Ukraine continues and, obviously, the next one as the previous government will not be recognized either by the government of Volodymyr Zelensky nor from Western countries. The Russian Federation wants to start a similar administrative-constitutional process for the Lugansk region now led by Leonid Pasechnikbut here, probably, the outcome of the decisive battle of Severodonetsk is awaited.
The platoon in need of a breakdown in the heart of the Donbass: “Whoever stayed here helps the Russians to shoot us”
by our correspondent Fabio Tonacci
On the other hand, “the authoritative member” of the Russian government quoted by Izvestia he spoke not only of Donbass and Crimea, but also of the Zaporizzja and Kherson regions saying: “I am out of any negotiations”. Moscow, after having occupied them in the first phase of the conflict, also wants to annex these two southern oblasts. The current mayors imposed with tanks will soon announce referendums in this direction in Zaporizzja, Melitopol (Zaporizzja region) and Kherson. After Lugansk for a day – May 9, the day since the liberation of Europe from the Nazis – returned by decree Voroshilovgrad, the old name under the Soviet Union, in the past few hours the invading army dismantled the Mariupol inscription at the entrance of the city: the Kremlin could reimagine the toponym Zdanov, worn after the Second World War in honor of the president of the Soviet of the Union, and before 1989.
About the city of Severodonetsk, the (Ukrainian) military officer of Lugansk, Serhiy Gaidai, said yesterday afternoon the Russians regained control of the city center and the home armed forces had to relocate to the suburbs. The Ukrainian army still controls the twin city of Lysychansk, on the west bank of the Siverskyi Donetsk River. The spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Alexandr Motuzyanyksaid that in some areas of Severodonetsk the Russian army has ten times the weapons of the Ukrainians and if the enemies break through the lines the situation could become difficult for the whole country: “They must reach the front, and soon, the new rocket launchers Americans “.