Press-conference of Alexander Boroday, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Donetsk. July 20, 2014

Press-conference of Alexander Boroday, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of
Donetsk. July 20, 2014

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Can I start?
Well. I think all of you are interested in the dismal situation
concerning the airplane. I have the following to say:

First, yesterday the team of experts still did not arrive, except for
those experts that were already present, the fourteen representatives
of OSCE and four experts from the Ukrainian side that are solely
concerned with the technical aspects of the catastrophe. That is why
yesterday in the evening we had to take the decision and start
removing the bodies from the site of the tragedy since, as I already
explained [the day before -- G.B.], we could not wait any longer. The
heat is 30 degrees Celsius, the victims' bodies are scattered over a
huge territory, and we cannot ensure their preservation even in the
most basic sense of the word, because the territory is rife with wild
beasts and stray dogs. All of that compelled us, despite the absence
of expert observers, who are so long in coming, to start organised
removal of the bodies of the deceased. As of today, 196 bodies of the
victims of the crash have been removed from the site and transferred,
in a railway refrigerator car, to the city of Torez, where they are
presently kept. Right now, or at least as of an hour ago, a group of
OSCE observers is working in Torez, who are exemining the
bodies. There are still _no other_ experts on these subjects on our
territory. The only news I can bring is that we have established
contact with a group of experts from Malaysia, who, 12 persons in
number, are expected to arrive later today. They are coming via some
convoluted route, but at least they _are_ coming. I hope that they
will arrive here, and first of all will start by examining the victims'
bodies and performing all the necessary procedures concerning these
bodies.

Other than that, I remind you that the OSCE group, contrary to what
foreign media reports, has started its work quite some time ago. They
are now operating on the site of the crash for the third day
consecutively. They are present there today, they were present there
yesterday, they were present the day before yesterday. Yesterday
in the evening we had a meeting with the OSCE representatives. They
expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to work; the only
complaint they had was that together with them we allowed a number of
journalists to the site. The OSCE observers were extremely unhappy
that journalists are present. They called this situation a circus. We
questioned their opinion on the freedom of press, whether they are
against that; they claimed they were not against, however they would
rather not see representatives of the press near them. We are not
enemies of free press either, so we do not see it as our duty to deny
the journalists access to the site. Thus the OSCE observers will have
to work at the site of the tragedy together with you.

I expect that you laso have numerous questions concerning the so
called "black boxes". As you see, I anticipate those questions. I can
inform you that our side has discovered, as of today, certain
technical devices on the plane, which we suppose to be these "black
boxes".  I have to stress: since the People's Republic of Donetsk has
no specialists on the subject of airplane security, we cannot be
certain. However we conjecture that these objects are the devices in
question. These objects have been transferred to Donetsk and are
placed under my personal supervision. We are awaiting for the
representatives of a specialized organization, in this case ICAO, to
hand over these pieces of airplane equipment. We are _waiting_.

I receive various rumours disseminated by the press that the bodies of
the victims that we are now continuing to collect from the site will
in the nearest future be transported to Kyiv, Mariupol or someplace
else. This is not so. We have no intention to transport these bodies
anywhere until the experts arrive. We are awaiting the expert
observers. We are now awaiting them for the fourth day. We hope some
of them will reach us. We have the information about the 12 people
from Malaysia, but we have _no definite information_ about the other
expert observers. We cannot understand why they are still staying in
Kyiv. I stress it once again that we are ready to do everything in our
power to ensure their security. The territory controlled by our forces
is relatively safe for them. I use the word "relatively" because our
country is in the state of war with Ukraine. The war is undeclared,
but it is a full-flegded war. However we will do everything in our
power in order to ensure the safety of observers and experts and give
them the opportunity to perform their duties.

I would also like to make the following statement. It is our opinion
that the Ukrainian side, by various means, deliberately delays the
arrival of experts to the site of the crash, because it does not want
the world community to learn the truth of this horrible tragedy.

There is one more piece of information, which is not directly
related to the tragedy in question. However it is related to our
military development, so I would like to make an announcement: since
today, our armed forces obtained new air defence systems. These are
not "Buk" ("Beech") -- those we did not possess and still do not,
-- these systems are called "Strela 10M" ("Arrow"). Their range is
still more than twice less that the altitude of the crashed airliner,
but since today we do have these pieces of equipment.  I make this
official announcement to prevent rumours later. These systems were
obtained as trophies, our specialists repaired them and now they are
ready for battle. So, staring today, in addition to MANPADs and
anti-aircraft guns, we have "Strela 10M". I assume that everyone who
specializes in military equipment knows the operating range of these
systems. Even if we had these complexes several days ago, they would
still not allow us to take down the airliner flying at the altitude
that it had.

[question]
- No, they are not sufficient. The airliner would have to fly at least
two times lower.

[question]
- I cannot say for certain, I am not an aircraft security
specialist. We can only hope that these data do exist, and that they
will be presented to the public. We do collect reports from the
witnesses. So far, according to those reports, it seems that the
airliner was taken down by a rocket from an airplane. But that is
preliminary. I hope you will be able to consult those reports.

[question]
From our side, investigation is performed by a joint force consisting
of representatives of the Public Prosecution Office and the Ministry
of the Interior. This force has various types of specialists, from
coroners to investigation officers, in total more than 30
persons. There are 15 coroners; however they have not started their
work yet: we do not want to do this before the arrival of
international experts, who we are _still_ awaiting. We are a little
tired of waiting. Aside from that, some of the victims were
Muslims. As I understand, autopsy of the bodies of Muslim people is
contrary to certain Islamic religious norms. That is why we have not
started performing autopsy.

[question]
- I have no such information. We do _not_ perform technical
investigation. We leave that to the international experts. Let them
come and investigate everything that pertains to the technical
details. Our side has no experts in aircraft security. We do not
investigate; we were only compelled yesterday evening to start
removing the bodies, because otherwise it would be inhuman,
anti-humanitarian, call it whatever you want. It is dismal that all
this time, hearing constant promises that the experts are coming soon,
we had to leave the bodies untouched. The OSCE mission only had one
recommendation for us: cover them with cloth and leave them at
that. That under 30-degrees heat and with wild beasts on the
territory. We have some moral responsibility before relatives and
freiends of the victims. Apart from giving them our deepest
condolences, these deceased people are innocent victims of an
undeclared war. Of the unannounced genocide organized by the Ukrainian
authorities. But we need to show at least some respect to the
deceased. So despite all the pressure exerted on us, yesterday in the
evening we started removing the bodies. We could not wait for the
international experts any longer. What would we present to them --
gnawed-at bones?

[question]
- The OSCE mission appeared on the site one day after the event. At that
time it informed us already that there are 81 expert present in
Kyiv. Now, it will soon be the fourth day after the event. Where are
those experts? I have the impression that we are in the middle of
nowhere, North Pole or Antarctica, in a place where you cannot travel
easily. But if you look at the map, you see, we are in the middle of
Europe. The road from Kyiv to here takes four or five hours, depending
on speed.

[question]
- No. The only function of the OSCE representatives is as
observers. That is how they position themselves. They say "we do not
touch or investigate anything, we just observe". So they came, and
three days now, they are busy observing. And the international
experts, for some reason they are not able to arrive during these
three days. If they came at the same speed as the OSCE
representatives, they would be operating for three days now. But that
is not happening.

[question]
- I commented on this a hundred times before. I say it one more time:
don't be naive, my esteemed journalists, whoever that be: Russian
journalists, journalists from other countries; you take some messages
from the Internet, you treat them as absolutely reliable, you present
them as true information. If you want to receive true official
information from us, approach me or my public relations deputy. I do
have such a deputy, and most of you know his phone number; his name is
Sergey Kavtaradze. We will supply official information to you;
everything else is just bullshit. We might even have nuclear weapons,
only I don't know anything about that. But on the Internet,
if there is a nuclear explosion anywhere in the world, it will
certainly be attributed to us. To the Nuclear forces of the People's
Republic of Donetsk. Except that in reality they do not exist.

[question]
There happened numerous communications on that topic yesterday, over
video calls, with Vice Premier Andrey Purgin as the representative of
our side, and representatives of a contact group from Kyiv. They
proposed to transfer the bodies to Kyiv, later to Kharkiv, later to
Mariupol. It is true that we do not have enough space to accomodate
all the victims' bodies and allow them to be properly examined. Thus
it is possible that we will be compelled to transfer these bodies,
after they are examined by the foreign experts that we are still
expecting. Later we may transport the bodies, for example, to
Mariupol. I do not know where precisely yet.

[question]
That's false, they are not being transported now. That is another piece
of information spam. They are not being transported to Ilovaysk. They
are in Torez. They have just been examined there by a group of OSCE
observers.
[question]
The station attendant does not know. These refrigerator cars are not
going anywhere now and will not go anywhere. They are being
guarded. These refrigerator cars were accompanied by some
representatives of the Ukrainian side. They have communicated
something to the station attendant. I state this once again: the cars
will not move anywhere until the arrival of international experts. In
particular, the 12 representatives of Malaysia we are awaiting.

[question]
There happened an attempt to unblock the airport. It failed.

In short. There were rather intense military clashes around the sity of
Snezhnoe. Also, Marinovka, Stepanovka and others. In general, clashes
happen and they are of considerable intensity. The Kyiv side did not even entertain
the idea that for the time of investigation of this dreadful tragedy
with the downed airplane we might make any kind of humanitarian
ceasefire zone, however small, to ensure operation of observers and
experts in the region of the accident. Thus everywhere on the
frontline military clashes continue. Quite soon you will be able to
hear about the situation from our Minister of Defense. I will ask him
to talk to the press.

[question]
There continue to happen from time to time in the region around the crash site
shootings from the adversary's side. In particular, three
days from now, when the OSCE group first arrived, part of the zone --
the zone is more than 10 square kilometers in area, -- part of this zone
was under fire from the adversary's shotguns. We could not allow a
group of OSCE observers to go there, since we did not want to have any
of them killed, even by the Ukrainian side. We would have been embarrassed
before a respected organization.

[question]
- There was information on that, bit I still [incomprehensible].

[question]
- I don't want to engage in guesswork. Let the experts arrive. I will
not announce versions our experts consider; to repeat once again, we
have no aviation security specialists. We only have
witnesses. Eyewitnesses of an event are not a completely reliable
source of information. They say that the airliner was shot down by a
Ukrainian fighter. You will be able to read these reports, but we do
not consider them reliable enough. The truth should be arrived at by
professional experts. They have their own methods to determine how the
passenger jet was downed. Our only problem is that those experts are
not coming here for some reason. I have ample reasons to believe that
they are not arriving because authorities in Kyiv do not want any
investigation of this tragic event. They deliberately impede the
experts by various means from coming here. in particular, they are
telling them horrible tales that we cannot guarantee the experts'
security; that the moment they come here they will be shot and eaten
or otherwise killed. That is why the experts are not on the way
here. We are waiting and waiting and waiting. The OSCE observers are
present here, 14 of them, working here for the third day, and no one
attempts to eat them so far.

[question]
- The "black boxes" are here in Donetsk.

To be precise, the term "black boxes" is not quite correct. These are
pieces of aircraft equipment that we, not being experts, consider to
be "black boxes". We have several of them; we are ready to hand them
over to ICAO professionals, once they arrive, untouched. Upon visual
inspection, they seem to be intact. To anticipate your question, under
no condition shall we hand them over to representatives of the
Ukrainian side, for fear of tampering. They may even replace "black
boxes" with different ones. We do not trust the Ukrainian side at
all. Once the international experts arrive, we will hand over all the
technical details to them.

[question]
- Who? Yes, he is in Donetsk. [I did not understand who -- G.B.]
There is no direct contact. We are asking the OSCE observers to help
us establish direct contact. The OSCE representative Alexander Hook
[or Guk?] is nodding his head and saying he would come in
contact. This situation continues without change.  I met him the
night before yesterday and yesterday evening. Every time I ask him --
please, help us. Please help us come into contact. Please make a phone
call or something; let them come and work here. The day before
yesterday we did not have that equipment yet, now we do. So now I am
saying this to you: please help, you reporters. You do have
opportunities to come into contact. Please let them know we are
waiting for them. Once they arrive, we will hand over the equipment; I
hope that it is the "black boxes" and that it will help them in their
work.

[question]
- Kyiv wants to destroy us since quite some time. We are ready to fight
anywhere on our land, including the city, if it comes to that. But we
do hope there will be no fighting in the city, simply because we will
drive the adversary away quite soon.

We do not plan to surrender, and as for Kyiv's desire to destroy us
all -- the whole people of Donbass, as it seems, -- we understand that
they had such a desire for some time, they still have it, and most
likely after the situation with the jet is resolved, the desire will
persist. We see no way to make aggression from the Kyiv authorities
stop. This is not related to the airliner tragedy in any way.

[question]
- A ceasefire depends on the position of two sides. We see that
Ukraine officials want no ceasefire. We are ready for ceasefire and
peace talks, but for that, Kyiv needs to withdraw all its troops from
the territory of the two People's republics, Donetsk and Lugansk. They
need to stop the occupation of our land. Stop killing civilians. After
that, we are ready for peace talks.

[question]
As sad as it may be, I am afraid, there will be no influence of the
airliner crash on Kyiv plans whatsoever. The intentions of the Kyiv
authorities so far are clear: receive international credit, which is
promised to them under the condition that they control the territory
of Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. In order to control the
territory, they need to destroy a considerable part of the population
and force others to emigrate. Make the population into refugees to the
Russian Federation, for example. Until they perform genocide and thus
gain control over the territory, they receive no international
credit. Since Ukraine's economy is already collapsing, they need the
money badly. This means they will continue the war while they have any
forces left.  They do not care whether the airliner is downed, whether
people are killed. You see, a large number of people has been killed
here already. These three hundred people who were killed several days
ago are not the first victims, and I am afraid, not the last ones in
this war. There has been a huge number of innocent victims here,
civilians. Except they are not citizens of Malaysia or Netherlands,
they officially counted as citizens of Ukraine. They are inhabitants
of Donbass, civilians. There are many women and children among
them. They were killed, this does not concern kyiv in the least. Why
would the killing of thee hundred more people, even if they have
European or Malaysian passports, concern Kyiv any more than that?

[question]
As for the airliner, this is the biggest problem. We are ready to
provide all opportunities to work. We are most interested in their
work; we would like them to announce to the world what the real causes
of this tragedy are. These causes are obvious to us. We did not want
to shoot down the airliner, and we had no technical ability to do so. We
understand that the plane was shot down either by the Ukrainian air force
or by the Ukrainian anti-air defense. It is in our interest that all
the accusations that we are responsible for the crash would be
retracted and, let me be clear, it is in our interest that these
accusations be directed at the Kyiv authorities. This is why we want
the experts to come and work. But we see that for some strange reason
they cannot leave Kyiv. This is why I am telling you: we are waiting
for the experts to come. We will ensure their safety. We will provide
them with every opportunity to work. We plead the experts to finally get up
from their negotiation tables in Kyiv and their hotels there, and to come
here. Heroically.

[question]
No, we will hand over the "black boxes" not to OSCE, but to ICAO. This
is the international organization that specializes in investigating airplane
crashes.

[question]
I can assert that no technical details of the airlines were moved
anywhere by representatives of our official organizations. Except the
technical elements that we consider to be "black boxes" are under
guard in the city of Donetsk, and they will be handed over to
representatives of the specialized international organization which is
responsible for the investigation of such accidents. I hope that after
they have the opportunity to work with these "black boxes", they will
publish their expert opinion about the causes of the crash.

No other details were transported anywhere.

[question]
There were no official contacts [with Moscow
authorities]. As for unofficial contacts, no comments.

[question]
I have no photos [of the "black boxes"? -- G.B.], but I am
absolutely sure that they are intact. I want the technical questions
to be resolved by experts. I do not want to generate spam. Once the
experts come, we will hand over the equipment, let them perform the
investigation. We are extremely interested in fair investigation; this
is why we keep close guard of these artifacts.

[question]
[On the number of casualties in the latest shellings of Donetsk's
suburbs by the Ukrainian army.] I don't have exact numbers
immediately. Yes, there are casualties and destroyed buildings. There's war
going on. We have casualties every day.

[question: There's been impediments from PRD's authorities to the
reporters' work. The questioner has spent the night under arrest.]
Don't worry, there will be no impediments, there has been certain
excesses by executives. This is being solved. As far as I know, all
the reporters that were under arrest are freed now.

I congratulate you. Whoever has not spent a night under arrest in
Donetsk, is not real native here.

[many people are detained for several days, no investigatin is being
performed]
You know, we are in a state of war presently. As it comes natural in
such a state, the military tend to establish their own kind of
beautiful order. We are dealing with this question, and, after all, in
a city where there is no military action right now (if there is any,
it's in the suburbs), the harshness of the military should be
considerably lowered. Further explanations will be given by [the
Minister of Defense] Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, who I hope to let you
talk to several minutes from now.

We are going to ensure that as few reporters be detained as
possible. But still, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to warn
you. Be mindful of the fact that Donetsk's suburbs and many other
settlements in the People's Republic of Donetsk are the zone of a
military conflict. You need to behave as orderly as possible. This is
not just about your personal safety; don't put yourelf on the line of
fire. You also need to behave orderly with respect to military
people. Don't photo them without permission. Don't try to take
interviews for every little cause.  The military's reaction to
all such situations will be quite tense now. I have to remind you,it's
not just direct war that is being waged against us, from trench to
trench. There is also the war of information that is being waged
against us. And the war of sabotage. Both in the city and all over the
Republic's territory there are sabotage teams of our adversary
operating. These teams often work under the guise of civilians and
reporters. I will not tell you everything now, but there have already
been noted cases when sabotage groups masked themselves as
journalists. Unlike you, the militaries know about such cases. So
their behaviour towards journalists, especially foreign ones, will be very
alert. So I am asking you to be very orderly when you talk to the
militaries. If you want to communicate, search first the person in
command. Report to him, show him your documents. Let him call his
superiors, if needed. Only after that can you start your reporting
activity. If you act differently, you may, excuse my bluntness,
face serious problems. Later we will find and save you -- probably, --
but still.

[question: are you ready to accept the experts even without the ceasefire?]
Yes, we are ready to support the agreement, we are ready to accept
them. Some are already here. We have 4 Ukrainian technical experts and
14 OSCE observers who are already working. There are 12 people from
Malaysia who, I hope, will come here in the nearest future. I only
have one question: where are the others and why it takes so long for
them to arrive?

[question: there was information that you are only ready to accept
experts if a ceasefire is declared]
Wait, I thought I was saying it clearly enough. Please stop spreading
nonsense. I am so tired of dealing with this information spam. Please,
if you want to receive our official position, listen to me, to Andrey
Purgin, to representatives of the PRD government and not to
impostors. Please do not consume unsubstantiated messages from the
Internet. If you want to know about the military situation, listen to
Igor Strelkov directly, live, and not what somebody writes on the
Internet purporting to be him. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to
receive reliable information, stop taking it from the Internet. And if
you do, please check it up with us. Otherwise you will continue to feed
yourselves and your viewers and listeners with bullshit and products
of information war from our adversary. You are doing this now. I do
have an issue with that, because it is through you, ladies and
gentlemen, that such an unbelievable amount of nonsense is
disseminated.

[question: will this be a pretext for the Ukrainian side to capture
Donetsk?]
- They are trying to capture Donetsk anyway. This may be an additional
pretext. Since the crash happened, they are trying to accuse us:
 that it was us who downed the airliner, even though we had neither an
   intent nor technical means of doing so. Despite it is obvious that
   we are not guilty in this tragedy, they are trying to put the blame
   on us.
 They are trying to accuse us that we behave inappropriately with
  respect to the victims' bodies, the freiends and relatives of the
  victims, even though we are trying to do everything in our power to
  protect the interests of their friends and relatives.
 They will continue to accuse us that we are criminals, terrorists
   and so on.
Because of all that they will have an additional pretext to act
maximally harshly with respect to the civilian population of the
People's Republic of Donetsk, destroy everything here, since in their
eyes, in their propaganda we are proved to be bandits and terrorists.

Another detail. Yesterday I conducted my press conference,
after the interviews of Andrey Purgin, concerning the real inhuman
behaviour on the side of experts and observers and the Kyiv
authorities, who, in our view, are purportedly delaying the arrival of
experts and observers. We were saying that it is inhumane to leave the
victims' bodies to decay in the heat. After this there were
consultations between my deputy Andrey Purgin and the Kyiv side. The
representatives of the Kyiv side were extremely unhappy about our
position, so that even a Deputy Prime Minister called Andrey Purgin to
convince him that the bodies should be collected and sent over.
Andrey Purgin said: let us do this, but we need an official
declaration to that effect. They finally provided us with an official
signed document, signed by a representative of the Ukrainian side, a
representative of the OSCE, and a representative of the
Netherlands. We are going to publish this document today. The document
is hilarious since it is the first time that the Ukrainian side has
provided us with an official document, and they had to address us in some
way. In order to avoid recognizing us as a body, they put a heading on
this document: "to whom it may concern". They do not address us, since
they cannot recognize us as the representatives of the People's Republic of
Donetsk, so that is what they wrote. The content of the document is
such: please, "to whom it may concern", remove the bodies as soon as
possible, and hand them over to us. Here is another example of a
pseudo-legal nonsense from Kyiv. It seems that their whole government
needs to pay a visit to a psychiatrist.