SIMFEROPOL, April 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Citizens protesting in Ukraine’s East should be heard, also in the international arena, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov told Ren television channel on Thursday.
“I am confident that popular sentiment in Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv should be heard. It should be heard also by the international community,” Aksyonov said, adding that Russia morally supported the protesters, and Crimea’s residents were also “ready to grant moral and material support”.
“They can certainly count on us in this regard,” he said.
Aksyonov added he doubted that Kiev’s authorities would take drastic actions.
“I do not think they would go for it. And I am sure that the spirit demonstrated by the population in the South-East should make them refrain from such unreasonable and irrational steps,” he said, noting that “if human blood is shed, the conflict will move into a different level”.
Aksyonov said the current situation was a direct consequence of “absolutely stupid, rash, irrational and, first of all, unfair” actions of Kiev’s illegal authorities.
“People are trying to protect their rights,” he said. “But it is just impossible to protect your rights otherwise in that state, unfortunately.”
“Self-appointed” leaders in Kiev “do not hear anybody but themselves and refuse to have any dialogue with the people in Ukraine’s South-East”.