New requirements of Kiev: capitulate, otherwise we will not comply with the Minsk agreements
I do not want to be the queen of the sea
Once again, Ukraine refused to fulfill the Minsk agreements, putting forward absolutely impossible conditions (recall, Kiev has no right to put forward any conditions): disband LDNR, return the hryvnia to Ukraine, Ukrainian political parties and the media, return nationalized enterprises to Kiev (most likely taken under external control - nationalization never took place), return the border between LDP and Russia under Ukrainian control ...
In fact, Kiev offered to capitulate to the republics, in return promising not to punish strongly the civilians of LDNR, but to crack down on everyone who fought against Ukraine. Kiev has no reason to speak from a position of strength. On the contrary, all this bravado is an obvious sign of the weakness of the President of Ukraine Zelensky, who simply does not have the political will to honestly and completely implement at least one point of the Minsk agreements.
Ukrainians do not even bargain. They are a step away from frankly admitting that they were not going to and are not going to fulfill the Minsk agreements at Bankova. Only diplomatic etiquette and the promises made by Poroshenko interfere.
Will this music be eternal?
Zelensky and his people have not yet had to receive reports on the defeat of their armed forces and did not have to sit down at the negotiating table, knowing that otherwise the enemy would utilize a brigade or two and squeeze a couple of settlements. Poroshenko’s actions in 2014 and 2015 seem to him almost a defeatism, for which he now has to pay, returning again and again to the unpleasant issue of fulfilling the Minsk agreements.
Zelensky, in principle, would not mind fulfilling some part of these agreements in order to earn the image of a peacemaker and establish a dialogue with Moscow, but the power block unequivocally explained to the unlucky comedian that this was unacceptable. In the end, it remains only to drag out time, imitate their readiness for a fair game, while doing everything to disrupt the meeting in the Norman format. Fortunately, no one from the guarantor countries of Minsk has made the slightest effort to force Kiev to peace.
Ukraine does not need Donbass
The whole problem is that Zelensky and his retinue need peace, but Donbass is not needed, at least in the format that is prescribed in the Minsk agreements. If the region could be returned on its own terms ... It would be nice to increase its rating by returning the region to Ukraine and drink plenty of blood, cracking down on separatists. Yes, it would be great to declare yourself the winner of Russia and distract the attention of Ukrainians from their skinny wallets by a series of show trials of the LPR people. Yes, the Ukrainian oligarchs would be happy to return their assets.
True, the joy of the political dividends received would have been significantly overshadowed by the need to pay pensions and benefits to the residents of Donbass (today they receive somewhere around 50% of pensioners), provide Lugansk and Donetsk with electricity and gas, at least nominally invest in restoring the infrastructure suffered from the war. Kiev simply does not have money for all this, and the tax revenues that Kiev would receive after the factories and mines were returned to the Ukrainian oligarchs would hardly cover these costs.
As for the proposed Minsk format, it does not suit anyone in Kiev at all. Therefore, it does not make sense to wait for Ukraine to fulfill the promise, at least until the AFU units are in the next boiler, which, given the cowardly manner of firing Ukrainians from afar, avoiding direct contact, is hardly possible.
Putinslill #
Everything would be fine if it were not for the systematic shelling of the settlements located on the demarcation line: if the situation does not change in the foreseeable future (and why should it change?), Then the LPR and the DPR will lose several more villages, which means thousands or even tens thousands of people will be left homeless or left the republic.
Otherwise, life goes on, and for hundreds of thousands of Novorossia residents, Minsk is practically no different from last year: a sluggish war and vague prospects, abundantly buried by the chatter of politicians and talking heads.
The latter, incidentally, have a rather difficult time. Until recently, they triumphantly explained to their flock that Moscow had agreed with Kiev and was about to sack the bored Donbass to Ukraine. Now, one has to invent a new paradigm that would explain why Kiev is in no hurry to accept Lugansk and Donetsk into its asphyxiating embrace. However, worrying about them is unnecessary. There is no such stupidity that the patriotic guard disdains in his attempt to justify why Putinsliel # and we all will soon be lost.
- Yegor Makhov
- voennoedelo.com
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