KYIV. Dec 13 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Chief of the General Staff Ruslan Khomchak has ordered an internal inquiry into remarks of a "political nature" made by Col. Oleksiy Nozdrachov on December 12 concerning the situation in Donbas.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces' head of civilian-military cooperation Col. Oleksiy Nozdrachov has been suspended for the duration of the internal inquiry," the Military Law and Order Service (MLOS) said in a statement on Facebook.
At a roundtable, entitled "National resilience: new approaches to solving old problems," which was held in Kyiv on December 12, Nozdrachov, when asked by a journalist about the creation of a reconciliation platform for Donbas veterans and militias who might fall under the amnesty, said that "the Ukrainian military and (...) the military who form part of the formations of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are reintegrating very fast."
"As well as the national idea, there are also military traditions. (...) But don't forget about the existence of far-right movements which the state doesn't control. Right-wing radicalism is currently rampant, and there is no state policy for reintegrating these veterans - and sometimes, not always veterans, and not always the people who care about national security - into state policy," he said.
The General Staff described the colonel's remarks as his "subjective assessment" which did not reflect the position of command.
"The head of the directorate for civilian-military cooperation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Col. Oleksiy Nozdrachov, was not in a position to publicize any statements going beyond his professional responsibilities and the remit of his unit," the General Staff said.