Andriy Parubiy, the head of Ukraine's Security and National Defense Council, warned Ukrainians on March 23 that pro-Russian extremists are working in eight southeastern oblasts to stir up trouble as a likely pretext for Russia's invasion of the mainland.
Parubiy made the comment as thousands of people gathered for a rally on Kyiv’s Independence Square as fears mount of a Russian invasion of Ukraine’s southeastern provinces after the Kremlin moved quickly to annex the Crimean peninsula.
Parubiy recounted the start of the EuroMaidan Revolution on Nov. 21 that took three months to topple Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. It was triggered by Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a political and trade association agreement with the European Union, a version of which interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk signed on March 21 in Brussels with EU leaders.
“At that time we knew that Yanukovych wants to sell us out to Putin,” Parubiy said. “The Russian president can’t accept that Ukraine has an independent foreign policy … Only a few believed
in our victory, but we did it with our courageous people. Ukraine will never be a
Russian colony. We should mention how we defeated Yanukovych and his riot
police. Now, we need to unite against Russian troops that stand near Ukrainian
borders from Chernihiv to Donetsk. They have more military forces than Ukraine,
but Yanukovych had more riot police.”
Parubiy said that foreign extremists are working in eight regions to take over state buildings “by storm and to provoke a Russian invasion in mainland Ukraine. Men must join the National Guard and nobody will shatter us. We will defeat Russia the way we defeated Yanukovych
on EuroMaidan,’ Parubiy said..
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, chief of the Security Service of Ukraine also called for unity. “Unite for our safety,
understand that weapon and criminals can’t be among us. You should support each
other and to take control over the situation,” Nalyvaichenko said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Torhan can be reached at [email protected]
