Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Russia is trying to move the epicenter of the hybrid war to the Ukrainian capital city.
“The less there is shooting in the war zone, the more active the enemy is in the rear. The aggressor is insistently trying to shift the epicenter of the hybrid war as close as possible to the heart of Ukraine, and the heart is our ancient capital, the beautiful Kyiv,” Poroshenko said during the events on the occasion of the day of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv region on Saturday.
The president stressed that the forces financed from Russia were preparing a coup d’etat in Ukraine in the interests of the Russian Federation, using the so-called theory of controlled chaos.
The president of Ukraine thanked the SBU for disclosing and documenting the link between the so-called “protest camp outside the Verkhovna Rada” with “the Malorossiya political emigration into Russia”, for blocking the financial channel from Russia.
“You masterfully uncovered the enemy lair that was preparing large-scale terrorist attacks with numerous victims,” he said.
Poroshenko noted that within the framework of countering enemy propaganda, more than 100 Russian citizens were banned entry to the territory of Ukraine. “We are talking about the spiritual heirs of Goebbels, who take part in the information war against Ukraine, posing as journalists, bloggers or experts,” he said.
The president recalled that the courts had already passed 36 convictions on owners and administrators of anti-Ukrainian communities and pages in social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook.
According to him, sentences were also passed for actions aimed at violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power (Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
In 2017, 13 convicts were sentenced under the high treason charges. “Any attempts by Russians, and even the fifth column inside the country, to revive the so-called idea of ”Novorossia’ and stimulate artificial separatist movements in various regions are immediately suppressed,” the president said.
“The activity of a group of persons coordinated from the territory of the Russian Federation that staged protests posing as various ethnic minorities was stopped,” Poroshenko said.
He also recalled the “Russian trace” and the Russian involvement in provocations with the aim of fueling a conflict between Ukraine and its neighbors – Poland and Hungary.
