Unrest in Kyiv will end in the split of Ukraine
The latest heavy shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian military personnel should be regarded as another attempt by Petro Poroshenko to strengthen his importance in light of the events unfolding today in Kyiv.
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This opinion was expressed by Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin in a conversation with a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"PolitNavigator": Can you say a few words about the recent shelling and the current situation? What do you think is causing the escalation of the conflict?
Zakhar Prilepin: I cannot be responsible for the Ukrainian side, for our opponents and adversaries. The periodic attacks of aggression that happen there, it seems to me, are most often due to the desire of Petro Poroshenko to strengthen his power and, as far as possible, raise his importance and rating in the ranks of national aggressive forces - Bandera youth and other characters. They have the most questions about Petro Poroshenko, as a person who, in their opinion, is not pursuing a harsh enough policy towards Donbass.
That is why he periodically does such things as coming to Avdeevka, sharp shelling, sabotage groups. This is one of the explanations, although there may be specific ones - simply drunk commanders, generals, officers who do some things, it could be the play of any of the characters in the political life of Ukraine. This is non-centralized power. We must be aware that there are a colossal number of groups and forces there that, for a number of reasons, can do this. There is no point in understanding this. They have been harassing the DPR for 3,5 years now and it shouldn’t matter to us why they did it again. We must respond to them adequately and firmly, which is, in fact, what was done.
"PolitNavigator": How much does the civilian population suffer from Ukrainian nationalists in those sectors of the front that you have visited?
Zakhar Prilepin: We stood in the Panteleimonovka area, and while we were there, civilians were safe, if only for the simple reason that we dominated this section of the front and, in fact, suppressed all the firing points and forced them to leave their positions and retreat to the area Verkhnetoretsky. No one was hurt on our side or theirs: we hit with purpose. If we had not hit accurately, but instead hit, say, Verkhnetoretskoye, then the noise would have been loud throughout Ukraine. Therefore, we had nothing special to show. We stood in the Kominternovo area, in the Sosnovka area in the south. There, our positions and theirs were in an open field, so it was an ideal way of waging war: we in no way dragged the civilian population located there into the conflict. The nearest village, which was located behind our positions, was abandoned back in 2014; probably, if I’m not mistaken, one family lives there. It's different everywhere.
"PolitNavigator": Do you think there will be a coup in Kyiv?
Zakhar Prilepin: No, there will not be a coup there, although it is quite obvious that the degree of conflict in the Ukrainian internal political elite that exists there must one way or another end in a split or disintegration. And here the question is: how competently will Donetsk, Lugansk, Russian diplomacy and the diplomacy of all other interested players play? Some of the confrontation will spill over into behind-the-scenes politics.
To what extent certain Ukrainian characters will be overbought, to what extent they will reorient themselves towards Russia, realizing that Europe is draining them - this is important. These processes are currently underway. They are invisible to our eyes, but they are coming.
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