MOSCOW (Reuters) – Alexei Zoravko, a former deputy head of Ukraine’s Varkhona Raza region, told RIA Novosti that pensioners and government employees in the Kherson region had stopped receiving their dues from the Ukrainian government.
Ukraine has stopped fulfilling its financial obligations to the people of the Kherson region. Pensions and salaries for government employees are no longer issued by Ukraine.
Zorauko said that in fact, the Kyiv government had planned to genocide the local population, adding that Kyiv was trying to paralyze the economic activities of the region.
He also said that the Russian currency ruble was now entering the region and closer economic ties were being established with Crimea.
The head of the Kherson Oblast Rescue Committee, Kirill Strymosov, had said a day earlier that there were plans to introduce a ruble zone in the region from May 1.
The ruble will be fully transferred within four to five months, mainly to help the socially weaker sections of the pensioners and the people, after which only Russian currency will be used in the region.
According to him, the transition to the ruble is necessary due to Ukraine’s financial structure and lack of money supply. Earlier, it was reported that the Russian army had taken control of the entire Kherson region of southern Ukraine and the Azov part of the Zaporozhye region.
Civil-military administrations have been established in Russian-controlled territories, and Russian television and radio channels have begun broadcasting. Izvestia’s correspondent Ivan Letoman reported on April 9 that the Russian flag had been hoisted at the administration building in the Kherson region.