We will not permit blockade activities in Donbas – Avakov

18:10, 06.06.2017 1 min read

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said blockade activities using force will not be allowed in Donbas.

"If several people get together and decide, 'Let's erect a blockade," that's one thing. What they plan on blockading is important. If they decide to blockade a trolley line using force, let me tell you that no one in Ukraine has a monopoly to use force, except the government," Avakov said during a meeting with journalists in Zaporizhia. He added discussions about blockades are political speculation.

"I recommend to these gentlemen who are discussing such actions, who are taking upon themselves full responsibility, and who are trying to earn political capital, to first think about the country, and then about their importance in society," Avakov said.

"We will not allow such actions to take place," he said.

Earlier, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputies Ehor Sobolev and Semen Semenchenko from the Samopomich Party faction in Rada called on Ukraine to suspend coal imports from Russia, threatening to blockade railway lines connecting Ukraine to Russia.