[RUS] Ukrainian minister says Donbass residents genetically unfit for national culture

[Zenaan Harkness]

Ukrainian minister says Donbass residents genetically unfit for national
culture
https://www.rt.com/news/367972-ukraine-donbass-genes-culture/

Published time: 23 Nov, 2016 18:34
Edited time: 23 Nov, 2016 18:48

Residents of Ukraine's east lack the genetics necessary to be part of
Ukrainian culture, according to the country's Minister of Culture. The
comment was quickly picked up by the opposition, who are now urging the
minister to resign.

"Speaking about genetics, Zaporozhye and the Donbass [region]... they
are imported cities. There is no genetics there," Evgeny Nishchuk said
on Monday in an interview with local local TV channel ICTV when asked
why Ukrainian culture is spreading so slowly.

The comment was quickly noticed both inside and outside Ukraine.

The Opposition Bloc party forwarded a plea to the Ukrainian parliament
to make Nishchuk give up his office, saying that “societies based on
ethnical segregation have long been outdated” and “he would be punished
for this kind of comments in a civilized society.”

“The minister points to ethnically unclean people who are, however,
still providing for Ukraine’s economics and national budget,” the
party’s statement said.

The leader of Ukraine’s Radical Party, Oleg Lyashko, harshly condemned
Nishchuk on his Facebook page and didn’t hesitate to call him “an
idiot,” who should be fired as a “genetically impaired” person.

Ukraine’s energy minister, Igor Nasalik, was less emotional, but still
disapproving.

“He was talking history, that I understand … but I don’t share his
viewpoint,” Nasalik said, according to local news outlet Strana.

Nishchuk apologized at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, explaining that
he “didn’t want to offend anybody” and he was talking about “the
importance of culture dialogue and exchange”.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, made statements
about rebels living in the Donbass region, which has been in an armed
conflict with the Ukrainian government ever since it came to power in
the 2014 Kiev coup.

“I doubt that any of our western partners would take these words as an
offense,” Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday. “Most
probably they won’t see them at all. They pay so much attention to human
rights. And they pay so little when it comes to politically troublesome
regions,” Zakharova noted.

It's no surprise it's so hard to stick to the Minsk roadmap to peace in
Ukraine, given that “Ukraininan governments see Donbass residents as
culturally different people whose identity should be corrected,”
Zakharova wrote.

Earlier this month the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forced said
that people in Donbass harbor extreme hatred for Ukraine’s security
officials, adding that they passed information about their locations
over to rebel fighters.

In August, Viktoria Syumar, deputy secretary of Ukraine's Security
Council, suggested holding a nationwide referendum on whether it was
worth fighting for control over Donbass, saying it that would take too
much in terms of resources to restore the infrastructure there and
besides, and that the local population "hates Ukraine."

Before that, in June, Vadim Chernysh, Minister for Temporarily Occupied
Territories (the official description of the Donbass area, which Kiev
says was invaded by Russia), said that even if Donbass is brought back
under Ukraine's control, its residents still won’t acknowledge the
official Ukrainian government.

Since August, 2016, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 9,500
people over two years of warfare, according to UN data.