You're reading: Presidential candidate Tsariov calls for army withdrawal from southeast Ukraine

Ukrainian presidential candidate Oleh Tsariov has called on the Kyiv authorities to stop using the army against civilians in southeast Ukraine.

“The first attack [by the troops] against Sloviansk was repelled and
the national guard armored vehicles are retreating. It is disturbing
that every visit by U.S. officials to Ukraine is followed by bloodshed
here. Already there are dead, although it is difficult to say how many,”
Tsariov said on the Rossiya-24 television channel on Thursday.

“There has to be a responsibility for all this, for using the army
against a civilian town,” he said. “As recently as today kids there were
still going to kindergartens and schools and now they have all been
evacuated. The town is bracing for a war,” the presidential candidate
said.

As for the situation in other southeastern Ukrainian regions,
“Mariupol was seized overnight by sporty youths who took advantage of
the fact that the town council defenders were asleep. Some people were
critically injured and,” Tsariov said.

Currently, the Kyiv authorities “are doing everything to make sure
there is bloodshed: they give orders and replace senior military
officials who do not want to obey their criminal orders,” Tsariov said.