Multimillionaire Serhiy Taruta was dismissed as governor of the Donetsk Oblast on Oct. 10, according to sources in the Presidential Administration and in Taruta’s office. President Petro Poroshenko’s spokesman could not be reached for comment on Taruta’s removal.
Taruta has been an outspoken critic of the September peace plan support by Poroshenko and the rift between the president and the governor has been growing since he was appointed in March.
Most recently, Taruta criticized the president’s effort for peace in Donbas, saying on Sept. 16 that the peace plan Poroshenko agreed to made the people of Donbas “feel raped.”
On Oct. 7, Taruta sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a congratulatory letter in honor of his birthday.
“Mr. Putin happy birthday! I am sure you will remember this year. The territory of your country got bigger and that of mine smaller. This happened because of a war between brothers that has poured out a sea of sorrow, tears and pain,” he wrote. “For the past 23 years there has not been one linguistic, religious or ethic conflict in the Donbas. We lived absolutely peacefully, but thanks to lying propaganda massive in scale coming from Russian mass media we have war. It is an artificial war Mr. Putin and you know it,” the letter continues.
Poroshenko is currently in eastern Ukraine and expected to introduce Taruta’s successor. General Aleksandr Kikhtenko is expected to be appointed as the new governor, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
Taruta is running as an independent in the Oct. 26 snap parliamentary poll in Mariupol single member district No 58. Poroshenko’s party is running a candidate against him.
