Akhmetov called for workers at all businesses in the Donbas region, where he owns coal mines, steel mills and other businesses, to stage a peace rally at noon on May 20. He called on all people in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, where a separatist republic has also been formed, to join the action.
Nearly 15 percent of Ukraine’s 45 million people live in the two oblasts. It remains to be seen if Akhmetov’s more forceful backing of a unified Ukraine, if followed by strong actions, can help defeat the Russian-backed separatists who are now officially considered to be terrorists by Ukraine’s central government. His call for condemnation of the separatists comes days ahead of Ukraine’s decisive May 25 presidential election, expected to be won by fellow billionaire Petro Poroshenko.
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“Just tell me please, does anyone in Donbas know at least one representative of this Donetsk People’s Republic? What have they done for our region, what jobs have they created? Does walking around Donbas towns with guns in hands defend the rights of Donetsk residents in front of the central government? Is looting in cities and taking peaceful citizens hostages a fight for the happiness of our region? No, it is not! It is a fight against the citizens of our region. It is a fight against Donbas. It is genocide of Donbas!” Akhmetov said in “an emergency statement” released late on May 19 addressed to “dear fellow countrymen.”
Akhmetov said that he “will not let Donbas be destroyed. I was born and am living here. That is why I am calling on everyone to unite in our fight: for Donbas without weapons! for Donbas without masks! for Donbas with a peaceful sky above!”
Akhmetov’s call for action, according to the statement, was prompted by reports that Kremlin-backed separatists in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast’s second-largest city, planned to shoot participants of a peaceful rally of some 50,000 of the city’s residents. Akhmetov said he called on the demonstrators to suspend the march planned on May 19 to avoid bloodshed.
“As I was told, more than 50,000 people were going to be a part of it. And that is in Mariupol alone, while across all of Donbass there are millions ready to join in,” Akhmetov’s statement said. “Why? Because people are tired of living in fear and terror. They are tired to going out to streets and coming under gunfire. There are people walking around with guns and grenade launchers. Cities are witnessing banditry and looting. Is this a peaceful life? Is this a strong economy? Is this good jobs and salaries? No! And that is why people wanted to go out for a peace march.
“But I was told in the morning that there were gunmen in Mariupol, that they wanted to shoot down peaceful people and a peaceful action! I immediately contacted directors of our plants and called on them to suspend participation in the peace march,” the statement continued. “Because a human life is the biggest value and I will never allow bloodshed. I urged to suspend the action; suspend, not stop it! Because if we stop, Donbas will remain in blood. I want to tell everyone – we will not stop! We shall not be frightened. No one will frighten us including those calling themselves a Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Akhmetov condemned the May 19 seizure of state railways by the separatists, saying the action threatened the region’s economy.
“Today representatives of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic seized the railway,” Akhmetov said. “They didn’t just stop the railway, they stopped the heart of Donbas because the industry of Donbas will die without the railway. It means that Donbas, our region of hard-working people, will die! That is why I am calling upon all employees across Donbas to go out tomorrow for a peaceful warning protest at the companies where they work. The rally will start tomorrow at noon with a siren ringing at all industrial businesses of Donbas in support of peace and against bloodshed. And that sound will ring every day at noon across all of Donbass until peace is established. I also call on all motor car owners and all patriots of our region to join the action!”
Timothy Ash, a business analyst with Standard Bank in London, said Akhmetov’s statement suggests a power struggle is under way in Donetsk between separatists and Akhmetov’s 280,000 employees in the region and supporters of the billionaire, who backed Yanukovych and the disgraced Party of Regions.
“For weeks, if not months (indeed since the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted Yanukovych), Akhmetov has been struggling to figure out how to play his hand between the authorities in Kyiv and the seperatists in Donetsk and Luhansk,” Ash wrote. “It now seems as though his hand has been forced by the deteriorating security situation on the ground which has appeared to threaten his business interests, and in recent days he has been forced to act, e.g. with workers from his various enterprises beginning joint patrols with police to try and restore order in Mariupol.”
Ash also saw signs that Akhmetov’s more active role may help keep Ukraine united as a nation.
“Increasingly, the Donetsk People’s Republic is being portrayed as a grouping of extremists, driven by radical groups from Russia. They have managed to secure only moderate levels of support in Donetsk and Luhansk, controlling only a few isolated towns, and administrative buildings, but lacking wholesale support from the population,” Ash wrote. “Perhaps all this is an attempt now by Akhmetov to re-establish some kind of authority in Donetsk, and thereby more generally in Ukraine, in preparedness to try and secure a seat at the negotiating table after presidential elections this weekend. If Akhmetov can restore order, and clear seperatists in Donetsk he will presumably consider himself still to be a political force to be reckoned with. This could be important in terms of preserving and defending his business interests in any future order to follow those same presidential elections.”
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at bribonner@gmail.com and on Twitter at @BSBonner.
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