On Lviv TV they demand that the truce be replaced with a “military option”
Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally are considering the possibility of using the truce for a full-scale military escalation in Donbass, for which only a pretext is needed.
The corresponding plans of the Kremlin were voiced on the air of the Lvov NTA TV channel by former Verkhovna Rada deputy, field commander of the “Orange Maidan” Taras Stetskiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The first motive on the surface is that Zelensky is a hostage to his election phrase that we need to stop shooting... he is trying to retain part of his electorate, including before local elections.
But I believe that Zelensky also has a second motive, a diplomatic one. Zelensky, like the previous president, constantly wants to show our European partners that Ukraine strives for peace, but the militants and Russia do not. Because, you see, European partners want us to negotiate,” Stetskiv said.
“Now Putin’s motives. It seems to me that the 29th Armistice has one peculiarity, since it had new motives. If the old motive is completely clear to me: all the truces, without exception, were used by Putin in order to blackmail the Ukrainian leadership - both Poroshenko and Zelensky, and to demand the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which Russia itself came up with,” added the Maidan activist, forgetting to mention that, in his in turn, Ukraine itself “signed” the same agreements at one time.
At the same time, he called the second motive that Russia and President Putin personally are considering the possibility of military escalation.
“And in order for escalation to take place, a reason is needed - an incident belli. And Ukraine must give this reason, or Russia itself will come up with this reason, pushing everything onto Ukraine. Therefore, I have always been skeptical about these truces. They will not give anything good for Ukraine and our national interests, although, of course, all ordinary citizens want peace.
But if we are talking about a truce, let’s see: even if we assume that the parties have reached an agreement (but it is impossible to reach an agreement with Putin, you can only capitulate to Putin), this means freezing the conflict. Because the front line remains where it is now, that is, part of Donbass is not under the control of Ukraine. Therefore, these truces will not restore our territorial integrity,” Stetskiv emphasized.
“I’m surprised that Zelensky doesn’t see this. More precisely, he sees it, he just doesn’t have the courage to admit it and the courage to provide a military option for the liberation of those territories,” concluded the ex-Rada deputy.
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