Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that Kiev and the Donbas region should look for opportunities and negotiate a peaceful way, and if the Ukrainian authorities want to see the Donbas in their composition, they should stop discriminating against the people of this region.
"I am sure that there is no other way," he said, answering the question of whether there is still a chance of completing the negotiations between Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk.
"Stop the war, stop insulting the inhabitants of the south-east, and remove these labels from people. Give guaranteez that the municipality will be sufficient for these regions to protect their rights. And this process should necessarily involve both European countries and Russia," Yanukovych is quoted by RIA Novosti.
According to him, if Kiev wants to see the Donbas as a part of Ukrainian state territory, they must stop discrimination. "How could someone might take a notion in his head, for example, in the time when I was president of Ukraine, that Yanukovych would deprive the pensioners of the western regions of their pensions? How so? How can you deny the social guarantees which are set in the Constitution?" the former head of state asked.
"There are a lot of accumulated grievances, a lot of mistrust and hatred today, among those people whose families have suffered. A lot of people have died, a lot of people have been humiliated. And so today we should reach such a level of trust that will allow us to live together, it takes time. Therefore, a transition is needed. And we need to go step by step on the way of building trust. And for that, first of all, you need to stop the war," Yanukovych concluded.
