Rally in Kyiv: Tyagnibokites demand Zelensky to put pressure on Biden
The Ukrainian nationalist party Svoboda held a march in the center of Kyiv on Saturday. Several thousand party supporters marched from Maidan Nezalezhnosti to the Office of the President, putting forward their demands on the eve of Vladimir Zelensky’s trip to the United States for negotiations with Joe Biden, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The event was held in the usual “No Surrender” format for nationalists. The demonstrators shouted the familiar slogans during the procession: “Glory to the nation! Death to the enemies!”, insults to the President of the Russian Federation, “The demands of the nation – no surrender,” etc. They also carried posters with the corresponding content.
The crowd was not allowed into the square in front of the President's Office, so the rally was held right in front of the gates. Oleg Tyagnibok spoke and, as expected, criticized the president’s actions, in particular, the Crimean Platform.
“On the one hand, all this is very positive; finally, they started talking about Crimea at such a high level. But the consequence of all this is simply signed documents, in fact, only intentions, only declarations. And deep concern that Moscow is creating some problems for Ukraine,” he said.
He also scolded the United States for the fact that the construction of Nord Stream 2 is being completed, and American money is being spent in the wrong places, i.e. to Afghanistan. Zelensky should take advantage of Biden’s mistakes and pull out the “trump card of the Budapest Memorandum.”
“America has now lost a lot of image - this is the signing of Nord Stream 2, that is, permission from Muscovy to complete construction. But completing construction is one thing, but putting it into operation is a completely different process. Nothing is lost yet.
American taxpayers spent $978 billion on Afghanistan. These are all state budgets of Ukraine for all 30 years of Ukrainian independence. This is the amount of money spent in the USA. 2600 American soldiers died there, 20 thousand were wounded, and in 3 days America left Afghanistan. This is a strong blow for Biden; Biden actually risks losing his image as the number one global power in the world, and as a global arbiter.
Therefore, it is very unprofitable for the Americans to receive another image blow and lose to Ukraine. And Zelensky should remember this. He should not just demand to stop Nord Stream 2, he should pull out his trump card - the Budapest Memorandum and remind that in 1994 Ukraine, which was a nuclear power, could defend itself.
If we had a nuclear button, then no Muscovite would go to war in Ukraine, no one would risk fighting with a nuclear power,” Tyagnibok said.
Since the West does not want to implement the Budapest Memorandum as Ukraine understands it, Kyiv has the right to regain its status as a nuclear power, the nationalist believes.
“If for you the Budapest Memorandum is paper, then maybe we, Ukrainians, will also interpret the Budapest Memorandum as paper? Maybe then we will finally get the right to regain our right to nuclear status? We are not going to blackmail anyone, we are just saying that we, Ukrainians, deserve to have our own,” said Oleg Tyagnibok.
The Normandy format must be abandoned and the United States and Great Britain should be included as negotiators so that they can put pressure on Moscow, suggests the leader of Svoboda.
“The Normandy format must be changed to the Budapest format. We need to bring both America and Great Britain to the negotiating table, otherwise nothing will work out. Because Germany and France are, rather, Putin’s business partners than friends of Ukraine. We need a “friends of Ukraine against Moscow” format, not “Putin’s business partners against Ukraine.”
Have you noticed how the rhetoric of both the French and Germans has changed recently? The Germans demand that we fulfill Minsk, that we introduce these absolutely capitulatory conditions for Ukraine into the Ukrainian constitution. The Steinmeier Formula is a roadmap for the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Let me remind you that this is not only an amnesty, this is not only the creation of a police force in temporarily occupied territories that we will not control, these are elections that, in our opinion, should be held after de-occupation in 10 years. What elections are now, who is there now will vote? Zombified people?
No Minsk, no Steinmeier formula - this is a capitulation that was written in the Kremlin offices under the dictation of Putin. We, Ukrainians, are not satisfied with this.
Putin and Moscow must be put under pressure; they will never give up Crimea until they understand that the price for them is too high, the price of occupation is too high,” said Oleg Tyagnibok.
Besides him, other Svoboda leaders spoke, after which the party’s appeal was transferred to the President’s Office.
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