A month has passed since then, as several hundred people block train connections between the separatists in the Donbas and the rest of Ukraine to break economic relations of Kiev with LDNR.
In late February, the authorities DND and LNR put forward to the Ukrainian government an ultimatum — the removal of the blockade until March 1 or a complete reorientation of industry in the Donbas on Russia.
In the Donbass, a large industrial enterprise, continues to work on the territories controlled by separatists, formally registered as a legal entity in other Ukrainian cities.
At least until March 1, they pay fees and taxes to the Ukrainian budget. According to the SBU, in 2016, the enterprises listed in the state Treasury almost $ 32 billion hryvnia.
The head of the DND Alexander Zakharchenko said that the external management is introduced at 40 enterprises.
A specific list is not made public, but Ukrainian experts admit that it will include objects, in particular, corporations, Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest and Industrial Union of Donbass, which is associated with the ex-Governor of Donetsk region Serhiy Taruta.
The introduction of external management, according to representatives of the separatists, it does not mean a formal change of ownership of these enterprises, and reorientation to the Russian market.
At the same time, Western countries never talked about the ultimatum LDNR and the new escalation in the Donbas.
Корреспондент.net gathered the first reaction of the parties to the expropriation of assets in the Donbass.
Akhmetov taxes only Ukraine
Rinat Akhmetov has stated that they intend to work exclusively according to the laws of Ukraine, noting that “no pressure” will not be able to force you to change the jurisdiction of the assets.
Requirement LDNR in the group “System capital Management” called unacceptable. SCM called himself “one of the few links”, which connect the uncontrolled territory with the rest of Ukraine.
Akhmetov noted that the Ukrainian state budget from SCM received more than 100 billion hryvnias of taxes from the beginning of the conflict in Dobass, 10 percent of which is paid the companies operating on the uncontrolled territories of Kiev.
Kiev — Moscow guilty
President Petro Poroshenko has accused Russia of confiscation of assets in RESPONSE and called it “another sign of the Russian occupation of parts of Eastern Ukraine”.
He promised that Ukraine would require to extend sanctions against those involved in the confiscation.
On the eve of the Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine Georgy Tuka said that heads of the enterprises, which introduce external management, can incur criminal liability for financing of terrorism.
He added that the promises of the representatives of the separatists to refocus them on the Russian market are a bluff: “the Russian market is not empty and nobody is waiting for these products”.
In the SBU, referring to the negotiations Zakharchenko and the Russians nicknamed the Grey, says that the income of expropriated enterprises will go in the “wallet” of the former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Locks — nothing has changed
In turn, the participants of the blockade, it seems, don’t see the problem in the introduction of external management on these enterprises.
“There is no Ukrainian jurisdiction. There are businesses owned by either the Russians or the hidden henchmen of the FSB. They had to be closed in 2014,” said bi-Bi-si one of the organizers of the blockade Anatoly Vinogrodsky.
Moscow — Kiev is guilty
Russia has justified the actions of the separatists, referring to the fact that the blockade is contrary to the Minsk agreements, and LDNR had no other choice.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov on a question of journalist about the future of the breakaway republics after the “spin” said that it was incorrect to use that word.
“We are witnessing the fact that cut off their state region fall in an even more difficult position, being placed in a blockade by extremists,” — said Peskov.
He noted that the actions of Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky “to some extent we can understand.”
Press Secretary of Vladimir Putin stressed that the work of the enterprises themselves has nothing to do with Russia. “Russia has a certain influence on the representatives of Donbass, but they are not in charge”.
The Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that the Minsk agreement violates the blockade, and not the confiscation of the enterprises.
LDNR
Zakharchenko sure that Ukraine will exist “maximum 60 days” and hopes for a speedy escalation to the “faster finish”.
