In the situation with the South-East, Kyiv preferred to take the ostrich pose, - opinion
Poltava - Kyiv, April 29 (Navigator, Natalya Starokozhko) - The ultimatum of the army of the South-East to official Kyiv expired the other day. But numerous acting representatives of our politics once again chose not to notice the demands of their people, thereby making a big mistake.
The famous Ukrainian blogger Natalya Starokozhko writes about this in her column for Navigator.
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And it’s not up to the people now. The Geneva agreements remind themselves and become like a child's game: you go first. Both the Ukrainian and Russian sides are energetically nodding at each other, waiting for the agreements to be implemented. Yatsenyuk is still signing the pen donated by the Pontiff, Turchynov is perplexed on the basis of which citizen Tymoshenko speaks from the rostrum of parliament. Poroshenko is trying to convince himself that Gaidaev’s “Pzhiti” is a worthwhile political technology. On top of everything, the election campaign for the position of mayor of Kiev has started, which, despite the tents and vegetable gardens in the center, still remains quite a tasty morsel for the fragile souls of public figures in Ukraine.
And they prefer not to notice the South-East. It's a very exciting topic. It is much safer to call all protesters “separatists” and “terrorists.” Visiting provocateurs and Russian saboteurs. Try to disperse it and not think about why so many people are unhappy with the current situation. This even adds some spice to Ukrainian everyday life, because now saboteurs are caught in the basements of Troyeshchyna, on the outskirts of Lvov, and whole echelons are exposed on social networks. The “struggle between good and evil” is in full swing.
Lugansk is brushed aside like an annoying fly. “What complaints can people have who are “zombified” by the propaganda of Russian channels?” people in the capital are amazed and sigh meaningfully about the “hand of the Kremlin.” Protestants’ own opinions are simply excluded.
For too long, the residents of Donbass were ignored, represented as downtrodden slaves and dumb biomass, accustomed to living in lawlessness. The opinion was persistently imposed on everyone that these people were too inert for decisive action and too dense for serious decisions. Their destiny is to regularly go to rallies and, of course, not at the call of their hearts, but under pain of dismissal.
Some benefit from the region's reputation as a slave herd, and some sincerely believe that miners can easily be forced to do something against their will. But these people risk their lives every day and are accustomed to arguing with death. In their struggle they will go to the end. And they're not kidding.
Kyiv chose not to notice the ultimatum of the people's army. I applied ostrich technology: when the head is dry and comfortable, life seems to be getting better, and everything around is fine.
But for some reason the problem does not go away. The barricades are not being dismantled, the Regional State Administration is not being liberated, and on top of that, the process of unifying the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics has begun. People are calmly and methodically moving towards their goal: to break away from subordination to Kyiv. But the protest was initially directed not against state unitarity, but against the usurpation of the “popular will” by a relatively small group of citizens. If the “revolution of dignity and honor” had noticed the Donbass in time, during the breaks between the singing of the anthem and the sowing of radishes, the “Russian Spring” could have been avoided. And there would be no need to hastily come up with options for decentralizing power and replacing freedom with ersatz autonomy.
But unfortunately, in Ukraine it is not customary to act from a position of logic and common sense. The maximum that the current government has been able to do is lightning-fast blitzkriegs of the so-called. “ATO” and mysterious voyages in the South-East of some presidential candidates.
Unfortunately for those in charge, the people are not only the oligarchs and party puppets controlled by them, tied hand and foot by long-term corruption schemes. Ordinary people from the street came to protest; ordinary citizens: doctors, miners, workers, sellers... those who cannot remain indifferent to what is happening in the country; on the land for which their grandfathers shed blood in the struggle for freedom from fascism. And now these people are also ready to die for their ideals.
They may not speak as well as experienced demonstrators; most likely, they are not as touching as the students in wreaths. But they came out to protect their interests, and they will not back down. They will no longer be bribed by the promises of sweet-voiced politicians. The people of Donbass deserve respect.
I’m afraid the day is not far off when Kyiv will be surprised to discover that not only Crimea, but also several regions of the east will stop responding to Turchinov’s shouts. When a government ignores its people for too long, the people take power into their own hands. Does Kyiv have a chance under such rulers?.. The answer is disappointing.
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