Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed an order to appoint police colonel Andriy Kryschenko as acting head of Sloviansk District State Administration (Donetsk region).
“It will be difficult for me to find a better man to protect people. You are a person who demonstrated that he has no fear. You know that a powerful and strong state is behind you, people are behind you and we have to clean our land of bandits,” the presidential press service quotes Poroshenko as saying.
The president said he highly evaluated the heroic deed of Kryschenko, who prevented militants from flying the Russian flag over the Interior Ministry’s department in Horlivka, and was taken hostage for it. For this deed, he was awarded an Order for Courage of the III degree.
“We must prove to everyone who lives in the East that the government can be different – transparent, open, non-corrupt. That is the reason why you fought for the flag of Ukraine without fearing the torture you suffered after the heroic deed,” Poroshenko said.
The president said the priority task of Kryschenko was to protect civilians, restore energy and water supplies, the functioning of the local government and Ukrainian TV broadcasts.
“For those who robbed, those who intimidated and killed people – they are to receive punishment,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko also said he hopes that Sloviansk, which was liberated from militants recently, will become a symbol of a new Donbas.
“The new time has come. I hope that in a very short term, everything will change in Sloviansk district. It was a symbol of terror, fear, neglect and torture, but now it will become a symbol of a new Donbas,” the head of the state said.
He said that liberation of Sloviansk was a turning point in the situation in the Donbas, the beginning of the liberation of other towns – Artemivsk, Druzhkivka, Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk.
Previously Kryschenko led Horlivka town police department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate in Donetsk region.
