On September 24, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra hosted a press conference of participants of the International Forum 'People of Peace' organized by the UOC-MP in the Donetsk region, where the 'Appeal of Forum participants, Residents of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky' was read out.
The UOC-MP forum complains about the separatists who do not allow the "road of life" in the Donbas to be repaired, Religion in Ukraine reports.
The Appeal supports the agreements of the parties to the conflict in the Donbas on a comprehensive ceasefire and at the same time states that there are "many issues that cannot be resolved only by our Ukrainian side," in particular, we are talking about the bombed-out Road of Life, which the separatists do not allow to repair.
It is noted that most of those who took part in the forum are people living near the contact line and displaced persons, “who are strongly aware of the difference between the real face of the war and its reflection on T.V.”
“At the Forum, we reviewed the state of affairs in the social sphere of our lives of residents and displaced persons of Donbas and Eastern Ukraine. We have started considering the issues that are survival issues for us today – medicine, education, solving housing and household problems. We have started developing an action program to restore a peaceful life for people in Donbas and Eastern Ukraine. The beginning of our work showed the need to create an executive body of the International Civil Forum “People of Peace”, which will present projects and programs developed by the forum participants in state authorities, the local government of Ukraine, international institutions and organizations,” the Appeal says.
“But there are many issues that only our Ukrainian side cannot solve. So, for example, those of us who live in the village of Zhovanka, the village of Zaitsevo (we are 105 there), including seven children, take impassable routes to reach the closest town to us – Bakhmut, as the road was bombed... For several months now, the Donetsk Regional Administration has been delivering all the materials and equipment for laying the road. But since the work requires the signing of a bilateral ceasefire regime, these works are frozen. On September 4, 2020, the next application was submitted by the head of the CAA of the village of Zaitsevo to ensure the safe repair of the highway from the T 0513 highway to the settlement of Zhovanka. The Joint Forces Command positively reviewed the application and provided security guarantees for compliance with the ceasefire regime by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the period from 15.09.2020 to 15.10.2020 No. 5648 of 06.09.2020. But the security guarantees from the second side of the conflict have not yet been provided through the OSCE SMM!”’.
Therefore, the forum participants ask the president to “appeal to the leaders of the Normandy negotiating group on the urgent adoption of the necessary decisions and do everything possible to establish peace in Eastern Ukraine.”
“We appeal to you, dear Mr. President, as well as to all public forces, citizens of Ukraine and the international community with a proposal to cooperate and join forces in joint work to end the war, to prevent social, environmental and humanitarian disasters, revive and ensure sustainable development of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the appeal ends.
Recently, an investigation by Russian journalists was released, describing how influential officials of the Russian government and the presidential administration of the Russian Federation manage the captured part of Donbas.