Ukraine moves to close hospitals, schools, banks in rebel-held eastern region
Updated
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has issued several decrees to withdraw state services, including funding for hospitals and schools, in pro-Russian eastern regions, in a move to cut links with rebel-held territory.
He has also urged Ukraine’s central bank to close down all bank services in the area.
Ukraine cut all state funding to separatist parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after separatists held elections in October.
Mr Poroshenko condemned those elections as illegal and in violation of the September ceasefire agreement.
The rebels said Ukraine violated the deal by moving to revoke a law granting the regions autonomy, putting an already fragile ceasefire in doubt.
A decree posted on the president’s website said all state companies, institutions and organisations should end their work within a week and “evacuate workers, with their permission, [and] where possible remove property and documents”.
The ruling, which formally asked parliament to revoke the “special status” of the regions, also suggested Ukraine’s central bank take measures to close down all banking services in certain parts of separatist-held areas, including card operations.
Ukraine accused Russia of sending more soldiers and weapons to help rebels prepare for a new offensive and cut off state funding to the war-shattered eastern regions as it refused “to finance terrorists”.
The Kremlin repeatedly denied aiding the separatists, driving relations with Kyiv to an all-time low.
An unidentified column of 40 military vehicles, including personnel carriers and artillery guns, was seen travelling across separatist territory towards the rebel-held city of Luhansk yesterday.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said seven soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours, while the press service for the Donetsk People’s Republic said six civilians, including two children, were killed in shelling on Friday.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far.
The presidential rulings, based on decisions made by Ukraine’s Security Council, also required Ukrainian gas producers to supply all their winter output to the population, rather than to industry.
Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in June over a pricing dispute and while some flows may restart in the coming weeks after an EU-brokered agreement, Ukraine still needed to take steps to conserve its insufficient reserves for the winter.
Ukraine was also facing an electricity crisis as the conflict disrupted coal supplies to thermal power plants, which provided around 40 per cent of the country’s electricity, and left reserves critically low ahead of the cold winter months.
Ukraine’s energy ministry must now look into the possibility of buying electricity from Russia to help Ukraine shrink its gas consumption, a serious setback to the country’s efforts to reduce energy dependence on Russia.
At yesterday’s G20 summit in Brisbane, German chancellor Angela Merkel proposed harsher sanctions against Russia, but said she did not expect any “sudden, qualitative changes” from president Vladimir Putin at the summit.
Reuters/AFP
Topics:
unrest-conflict-and-war,
world-politics,
ukraine
First posted