Russian mercenary Igor Girkin (Strelkov) has stated that only thanks to his sabotage group, the Donbass separatists have been able to hold the illegal "referendum" on the "DNR" creation. He told this at a press conference in Saratov.
Answering a question from one of those present why "referendums" did not take place in Odessa and Kharkiv, similar to those that were imitated in Donetsk and Luhansk, Girkin answered that there was no one to protect them.
"In fact, there were no "referendums" in Kharkov and Odessa only because there was no one to defend them", - he said.
According to the terrorist, it was his sabotage group that was able to provide forceful cover for the "voting" in Donetsk oblast. "In Donetsk, if our groups had not entered, in particular, mine, then, probably, everything would have happened according to the Kharkiv or Odessa scenario", - he stressed.
Girkin told that the sabotage raid on the Donbass in April 2014 was not the only option for him: the idea of invading Russian militants into the Odessa oblast was considered.
"I had a choice: to enter Odessa or Donetsk. I had delegates from Donetsk and there were delegates from Odessa. Moreover, they did not appeal to me personally (nobody knew me at that time), but to Aksyonov, and Aksyonov sent them to me. A representative of Odessa beseeched me almost on knees to enter Odessa. But I am sorry, I did not dare to act far from the Russian borders having such tiny forces…", - he reported.
It was precisely because of the "defenselessness" of the Odessa or Kharkiv separatists, he is sure, that fake "referendums" did not take place in these territories. "There was no one to defend - everything was nipped there in the bud…", - Girkin concluded.
As OstroV reported, on April 12, 2014, little-known Igor Girkin (Strelkov) entered Sloviansk from the territory of Russia with a detachment of Russian saboteurs. His sabotage-reconnaissance group was seized by the city's police departments and SBU, and Girkin declared himself "acting commander of the DNR militia". Later he confessed that the bloody war in Ukraine would not have started without his detachment. "It was I who pressed the trigger of war. If our squad had not crossed the border, everything would have ended, as in Kharkiv and Odessa. It would be several dozens of killed, burned and arrested. And that would be all. Practically the flywheel of war which is still going on was launched by our squad", - the saboteur stated in an interview with Zavtra far right newspaper. Girkin fell under displeasure of Russian curators in August 2014, and was "dismissed" from the post of "Minister of Defence of the DNR".