Nearly all medics in the Lugansk People’s Republic areas liberated from Kiev forces have stayed back to help the population, LPR Healthcare Minister Natalia Paschenko said at a news briefing at the House of Government.
“I want to thank all medics of the liberated areas for their decision to stay and provide medical assistance to the population,” Paschenko said. “I believe that the priority for medics in any conditions or circumstances is to stay with their population and continue to provide medical aid.”
The minister called the medical personnel who had quit their workplaces “traitors and deserters” as they abandoned their people in a difficult time.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Donbass to protect residents of the region from Ukrainian aggression and called on Ukrainian troops to leave the combat zone. Earlier, the Heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, requested the Russian president to provide military assistance. LPR militiamen had liberated 54 Kiev-held settlements of the Republic by the morning of March 6.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn from the contact line under the accords. *i*s
