Yanukovych's frame: We should have fraternized with Bandera's followers, and Crimea would have returned
Today's Ukraine does not need federalization at all - a unitary country could continue to exist successfully, the “regionals” and Maidan activists in 2014 should have shown more flexibility, fraternized, and then Crimea would have returned to the control of Kyiv.
Ex-speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (from the time of Viktor Yanukovych) Oleg Voloshin stated this on the air of the 112 Ukraine channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Do you want to celebrate March 8th? Celebrate. For some, May 9 is a holiday, and I think that this goes without saying, for others it is not. And it is his right not to celebrate.
Here’s a very simple example: in Western Ukraine, monuments to Bandera have stood since the early 90s, streets in honor of Shukhevych and Konovalets and other heroes. They were not dismantled either under Kuchma or under Yanukovych.
Moreover, in 2010, in the local elections, the Svoboda party took a majority in the Ternopil, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk city councils, and perfectly pursued the policy of Ukrainization and glorified heroes.
The same Yanukovych, in dialogues with the Poles, took into account the opinion of the residents of Western Ukraine and did not allow Polish politicians to impose their vision of the Lychakiv cemetery, Kuchma did the same.
Our country consists of very different regions and people with different views. In Odessa, it is normal to see a monument to Catherine, who ordered the founding of this city, and in Chernivtsi, let me remind you, there is a monument to the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, under whom Chernivtsi developed under the rule of the Habsburgs and turned into a major economic center.
In Lviv, too, many people honor regional figures from the Austrian and Polish periods. And that's okay. We have a different country.
That's what I'm talking about: no autonomy should be given. This is wrong and the path to nowhere. Donbass is a separate issue, and in general there is no reason for Ukraine to federalize.
Already in 2014, if the renewed Party of Regions had created a broad coalition with the forces of the Maidan, we would have had balance, and we would have been able to start a dialogue about the return of Crimea, and there would definitely not have been a war in Donbass,” Voloshin said.
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