Latvia ready to deem Ukraine rebels ‘terrorist groups’

Take note – story published 9 years ago

Latvian Ambassador to Ukraine Argita Daudze told a press conference Tuesday that her country’s government is prepared to officially list the armed pro-Moscow groups calling themselves the People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk as terrorist organizations, reported Ukraine’s news portal unian.net.

“Our Foreign Affairs minister has expressed the opinion that we are ready to do so,” Daudze responded to a direct question by a correspondent from unian.net regarding such a possibility.

Meanwhile, pro-Russian demonstrators gathered for a rally at the Laima clocktower by Freedom Monument Tuesday. One group calling itself the Movement for European Russians displayed a photo gallery depicting events in eastern Ukraine and the Maidan square in Kiev that was occasionally blown over by wind gusts. The rally attracted only minimal attention from passersby, with tourists and journalists among the only people interested in the demonstration.

Also present was a pro-Russian group calling itself Baltija, whose representatives collected donations for suffering residents of the increasingly war-torn eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk.  Contributors wishing to help deliver humanitarian aid to the areas stood in line briefly to hand over their money, receiving a receipt in return, observed LSM from the scene.

The few dozen individuals called on Ukraine to end the war, which they claim is being stoked by its government forces. About ten municipal police officers observed them without incident, detaining only one man for expressing apparently overly extreme opinions about events in eastern Ukraine, reported national information agency LETA from the scene.

On July 22 the Ukrainian parliament urged the international community to formally mark the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics as terrorist organizations as it asked for help in stemming the activities of these Russian-backed separatist groups in its eastern provinces.

Following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in April, the pro-Moscow armed units became active in the southeast of the country. Western nations urged Russia to influence the separatists to put down their weapons, however Moscow distanced itself from admitting its alleged support for the groups while the aggression was allowed to continue, even after MH17 was downed in the midst of the conflict.

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