A national conference on Saturday of leaders of bottom-tier organizations of the ruling Party of Regions passed a resolution to set up a Ukrainian Front.
The plan to set up the group, whose full name would be the All-Ukraine Public Union Ukrainian Front, was based on an initiative put forward at the conference, held in Kharkiv, by the head of the local branch of the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan, Volodymyr Ryzhkov, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported from the event, which gave unanimous approval to the proposal.
“There is special symbolism about this name [Ukrainian Front],” said Kharkiv region governor Mykhailo Dobkin, head of the Party of Regions’ local branch.
“Our front will defend and purge the Ukrainian land from those who have come here with invasive plans. This was the case in the past, and this is what is happening today. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers coped with this task, and today it is our turn. I think that we will be a credit to those who gave us birth, who brought us up, who laid the basis for our character, and who have put us on the right path by imbuing us with patriotism,” Dobkin said.
He insisted that every chance be used to resolve Ukraine’s crisis in a peaceful way but claimed that the government would use force if this proved impossible.
“For as long as there is an opportunity to peacefully resolve today’s social confrontation, it is our duty to take what may even be the minimum or a seemingly unreal chance to preserve peace in our country and prevent a civil was and bloodshed,” he said.
However, “our patience is not limitless,” the governor said. “The challenges that are being thrown down to us are being taken. When we see that the peaceful way of restoring order in our country has been used up, we will do it another way on the basis of the laws and constitution of Ukraine.”
Dobkin described the Ukrainian crisis as “a trashy play that has been written outside Ukraine.”
According to its organizers, the conference brought together about 6,000 people – members of 20 delegations from regional organizations of the Party of Regions, parliament deputies, Communist Party members, and representatives of more than 50 other nongovernmental organizations.
