Russian passports handed out in occupied cities in Eastern Ukraine: first steps in annexation of Donbas

At a press conference in New York on Thursday, Yuriy Sergeyev, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Nations, said that Russia is preparing a large-scale occupation of eastern Ukraine. In the words of Sergeyev, after the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine met in Minsk the situation in eastern Ukraine has only gotten worse. According to the United Nations News Service, Sergeyev appealed for help from the international community. The Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN told reporters on Thursday morning that Russian tanks have started moving from Novoazovsk to Mariupol. As stated by Segeyev, Ukrainian soldiers together with local residents blocked their advance. Sergeyev also noted that Smerch and Urahan rocket launchers continue to be fired from Russian territory. OSCE monitors confirmed this fact last week. “These recent actions taken by Russia demonstrate that they are preparing a large-scale occupation, just like we witnessed in Ossetia,” said Sergeyev. “Russian authorities have launched the full-scale issuing of Russian passports in Donetsk and Luhansk. It is being done to give Russia an excuse to bring in the Russian Army under the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.” “Given these difficult circumstances we are forced to appeal to the international community for economic and financial aid to help Ukraine resist foreign aggression,” he said. “We are calling on the international community to continue to put pressure on the Russian Federation to stop the assault on Ukraine and to abandon their politics of aggression that is absolutely unacceptable in the 21^st century.” At the same time the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations expressed hope that the meeting in Minsk on Friday of the Tri-Lateral Contact Group will set in motion negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and that meaningful steps will be taken to achieve peace. “The whole world knows that Ukraine is in strict compliance regarding its obligations and today Ukraine is the victim of aggression committed by its neighboring state. We hope that, finally, it will be possible to stop the constant violations of agreements, the murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war and the murder of civilians, and the destruction of educational institutions and other infrastructure by the Russian army and terrorists,” concluded the Ukrainian Ambassador. [hr]Source: glavcom.ua, translated by Olha Rudakevych