DNIPROPETROVSK. March 24 (Interfax) - Deputy head of the Dnipropetrovsk state regional administration Hennadiy Korban has accused the Ukrainian Security Service of "sheltering" smuggler groups in eastern Ukraine, and the Ukrainian leadership of failing to honor its pledges to the regions and silencing Ukrainian forces' losses in Donbas.
"We are saying with absolute clarity today that we know it was Security Service people who organized schemes of transporting goods in the military operation zone, and are providing cover to cargo flows and accompanying the transportation of scrap metal, vodka and cigarettes," he said at a press conference in Dnipropetrovsk on Monday.
Korban also said that Security Serve chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko should either provide evidence to support accusations against him [Korban], or, if this does not happen, a parliamentary investigative commission will have to request Nalyvaichenko's dismissal.
Korban said that the Dnipropetrovsk regional government has many claims to make to Kyiv.
"It's time to re-establish order in Kyiv which pledged decentralization and economic independence to us - to some extent, partially, decentralization in the financial sphere. There have been many pledges and nothing has been done. We want to tell Kyiv: stop lying to your people. Stop these lies about decentralization, about successes scored in the counterterrorist operation and about the casualties at the front. We have exact figures which we have been gathering all this time. Stop lying about the situation in the Ukrainian armed forces and about its materiel," he said.